UK Edition
GP had illicit 'emotional relationship' with serviceman on RAF base
A civilian GP working on an RAF base faces being struck off after she had an illicit “emotional relationship” with a married serviceman, a tribunal has heard.
Dr Julien Nash admitted she had fallen in love with the unnamed man as they bonded over a shared love of wildlife whilst she was treating him at RAF Cosford in Shropshire.
Although the pair did not became physically intimate, Nash and the serviceman would take regularly lunchtime walks over an eight-month period and she sent him one message saying: "I saw u too and I heard ur beep and my heart jumped because I love you."
Another text she sent read: "Hello darling it was so wonderful at lunchtime."
The couple were photographed kissing during one of their regular lunchtime walks.
The 54-year-old from Bridgnorth, who is married herself, appeared at a tribunal judging her fitness to practice.
She admitted having an emotional relationship with the serviceman identified only as Patient A between September 2015 and April 2016.
The hearing was told Dr Nash turned herself into the General Medical Council (GMC) after the serviceman’s estranged wife made a formal complaint.
Dr Nash’s husband, Andrew, 66, also became suspicious when he noticed a birthday message on his wife's Facebook page which had been posted by the patient.
Under GMC guidelines, doctors must keep a professional boundary with patients and “not pursue a sexual or improper emotional relationship”.
Chloe Fairley, lawyer for the GMC, told the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service in Manchester: "The concerns first arose when the doctor self-referred herself to the General Medical Council when she informed them that she had conducted herself in an inappropriate relationship and there had been a complaint from the patient's estranged wife.
"As a result, a meeting was held to discuss the complaint and she gave an account of what occurred and the General Medical Council conducted an investigation. In November 2015, she engaged in a kiss with patient A and following that she advised him that she should no longer be his doctor.
"As part of the investigation a photograph was obtained of the two kissing and also recovered was a text message exchange.”
Dr Nash told the hearing that when she received the complaint, she had a meeting with a colonel in charge of her.
She said: “I was told that things like this happen in the military all the time - he was laughing and said I would be absolutely fine.
"At the time I didn't realise where I was, it was only when the complaint was made that I woke up and realised what had happened.
She said that working on a military base she constantly found herself in contact with patients in cafes, gyms and meetings.
She said: "I joined in 2008 and was expected to treat the people I was working with - some of these people were friends. Despite voicing our concerns about this we were still made to treat them.
She felt her professional boundaries had eroded over time, she said.
She said: "A patient and a doctor should not be kissing and I wanted to carry on with the friendship, but not to pursue it in any other way.
"It was a friendship and at the time I didn't realise the depth of the affection that was building up.”
“We always met in a public place and we were seen by members of staff that we knew. It was an escape for me at lunchtime to go for a walk and have a conversation that was not about medicine.
"It was so refreshing and I think towards the end I was perhaps realising my affection for him.”
She said she had advised him to see another doctor, but said the situation was difficult because she could not terminate a patient’s care.
Dr Nash's lawyer said: "The two parties had a shared interest in wildlife and the patient himself indicated that they would go out for lunch and walk their dogs and talk. There was only one time they met in the evening and this was for a conservation meeting.
"She maintains that the meeting at lunch time was to walk the dogs and on one occasion they went to a book shop and that the meetings would always happen in front of people they knew and were not covert.
"When they exchanged a kiss she felt they had crossed a line and she asked for him to see another doctor. He couldn't move to another practise because of the distance and he required an RAF practice.
"There is no question of the medical care of the patient having suffered at all and there is no suggestion of that."
The hearing continues.