Morphine-for-lover GP named

Photo / Supplied

An Auckland GP has lost her bid for name suppression after she prescribed large doses of morphine to a patient and work colleague who became her lover.

Heather MacDonald went to the High Court at Auckland this month to appeal against the severity of her punishment by the Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal, New Zealand Doctor Online reported.

She appealed against the tribunal's penalty but not its verdict, after it found her guilty of malpractice, negligence and bringing discredit to the medical profession.

The tribunal had suspended MacDonald for nine months and ordered her to pay $120,000 in costs after she was obliged to start treating a colleague, who later became her lover in 2005, for back pain.

In 2006 she transferred his care to another GP without having fully documented the morphine prescription in her notes.

The man died in September 2006 from a toxic cocktail of morphine, methadone, tramadol and diazepam.

In the High Court, Justice Graham Lang said that there was no way around the tribunal's suspension as it regarded sexual relations between doctors and patients seriously.

However, he said MacDonald was obliged to treat the work colleague and the relationship arose from their work friendship.

Justice Lang reduced the suspension period to five months and the costs to $100,000.

MacDonald's employer no longer requires its doctors to treat work colleagues. The names of the employer and the patient were suppressed.

- NZPA