A Gold Coast doctor who illegally accessed his ex-wife’s medical records has been fined $5000, but has escaped the formal reprimand sought by the Medical Board of Australia.
The Queensland Civil and Administration Tribunal heard the case, brought by the medical board, in October, but the judgment was only published this week.
The tribunal heard that by reviewing his ex-wife’s scans on the day before she was informed of the results, the doctor knew of her diagnosis before she did. They had previously been married for 11 years.
A Gold Coast doctor has been fined after he looked at his ex-wife’s medical records without her permission.Credit: Jessica Shapiro
The medical board had sought a formal public reprimand for the doctor, but he was instead fined $5000, despite QCAT’s finding that he had engaged in professional misconduct.
In her published decision, QCAT member Julie Dick, SC, said there had been a number of affidavits from the doctor’s peers, who spoke highly of his care and concern for his patients.
“The applicant has proffered reasons for his behaviour and stresses his children’s anxiety and his own distressed mental state at the time,” she said.
“However, that is to be seen in light of the fact that some months separated the instances of behaviour.
“As I say, right from the time he was notified, he made full admissions and took steps to address his behaviour through mentoring from a senior practitioner.”
The doctor, referred to only as “FSF”, accessed the medical records of his ex-wife, referred to as “MC”, twice in 2020 – on September 3 and 6.
“After some months’ delay, he then, in circumstances where he had heard that MC was in hospital and where she had said she preferred not to tell him why, on 21 May for a period of about two minutes accessed her records,” Dick said in the judgment.
“And then on 26 May for about three minutes, he again accessed her images and records. He had no clinical justification for doing so and MC did not give him permission to do so.”
Dick said the tribunal was satisfied the doctor’s actions amounted to professional misconduct.
“The conduct involves a serious breach of trust because the respondent was in a position to be able to access the records, which he would not have been in were it not for his profession,” she said.
“Therefore, it was directly connected to his practice of his profession.”
Dick said the five-year delay between the doctor’s conduct and the hearing factored into QCAT’s leniency.
“That has not been his fault,” she said. “It has been recognised in other cases that having such a matter hang over your head for such a long time has a heavy impact and must be factored in.”
QCAT gave the doctor 28 days from October 22 to pay the $5000 fine to the Medical Board of Australia.
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