The Board rejected an argument that the disciplinary committee of the GMC were wrong in principle to find the appellant guilty of infamous conduct in a professional respect where he contended that the doctor’s intimate relationship began before the woman became his patient. The tendency of conduct to debase or degrade the standing and reputation of the profession will vary from case to case, that there may be cases when the maintenance of a long-standing, pre-existing association can be regarded as much less serious than those when the professional relationship has deteriorated into an improper association, but that this was not to exclude the former from the category of those cases which could be made the subject of disciplinary action. But in each of these cases the improper relationship continued after the professional relationship had been established, and it was this fact that formed the basis of the allegation of professional misconduct.
Judges:
Lord Hodson
Citations:
[1967] 2 AC 259
Cited by:
Cited – Libman v The General Medical Council PC 20-Oct-1971
PC (General Medical Council) The appellant a consultant physician appealed against a finding of serious professional misconduct. He had had sexual relations with a patient, and offered to pay a sum for her . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Health Professions
Updated: 10 May 2022; Ref: scu.242402