Doctor Deane Drew fined $3000 for pursuing sexual relationships with vulnerable patients

Doctor Deane Drew started sexual relationships with multiple patients over decades of practice and prescribed medications to a patient who was abusing them. Photo / File

Doctor Deane Drew had been starting sexual relationships with multiple patients over decades of practice and prescribed medications to a patient who was abusing them.

The Wellington practice owner was last month struck off by the Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal (HPDT), which today released its written decision.

The tribunal's decision reveals all of these patients were vulnerable through their own mental health issues.

The tribunal also found a text message from the doctor to one of the patients saying "please don't lay a complaint as it could ruin my life and that would be pretty harsh for abusing your trust and treating you badly".

HPDT chair Alison Douglass said: "There was a severe departure from accepted standards and the seriousness of the conduct warrants a disciplinary sanction."

As a result, on top of the fine and $28,966 of costs, Douglass ordered that Drew's medical registration be cancelled and conditions be imposed that he needed to meet before he could apply for re-registration.

They also recommended to the Medical Council that further conditions to be placed on his practice if the he was re-registered in the future.

Drew, a former part owner of the Lambton Quay practice City Medical, had been prescribing drugs of dependence and psychotropic medications to all of the women while he was in a close personal relationship with them.

He prescribed a medication to one of his patients that was not best practice and at higher than the recommended amount, despite being notified she was abusing the drugs and providing them to her sister.

The charges range from 1991 to 2016.

Drew's practising certificate was voluntarily suspended in December 2016.

He started a relationship with his first patient in the early 90s. He told her during one consultation that he "wondered if [they] would be lovers, and over the first year of him treating her, he gave her gifts of money, flowers, lingerie and took her out for meals".

He first treated another woman in 1993, but did not start a sexual relationship with her until 2016.

On October 3 that year, he sent her a text message saying "please don't lay a complaint as it could ruin my life and that would be pretty harsh for abusing your trust and treating you badly".

The relationship ended less than a week later.

Drew has admitted this to the HPDT back in June, as well as each particular of the disciplinary charge.

PCC lawyer Kate Feltham said nothing short of cancellation would ensure the protection of the public and maintain professional standards.

Drew apologised to the complainants through his lawyer, who read a statement provided by the doctor.

"I'm here to face up to my wrongdoings," Harry Waalkens QC said on Drew's behalf.

"I have received help and support for my condition. I am not that person anymore."

Waalkens said Drew had suffered an "immense fall from grace" but was at the tribunal hearing to "face the music".