GP fined $10k for registration breach after sleeping with patient

A Sunshine Coast GP has been fined $10,000 for breaching a condition imposed on his registration after his sexual relationship with a patient was exposed.

Dr Richard Heath in 2019. Picture: Noosa Health Centres/Facebook

A Sunshine Coast GP with over 30 years of experience has been fined $10,000 for breaching a condition imposed on his registration after his sexual relationship with a patient was exposed.

GP Richard John Heath was sanctioned by a Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal (QCAT) last week after breaching a condition on his registration “not to practice in any General Practice role requiring direct or indirect clinical patient contact”.

Dr Heath had the condition imposed on his registration in 2020 following allegations that he had engaged in a sexual relationship with a patient.

A QCAT tribunal reprimanded Dr Heath in 2022 for the inappropriate conduct, which had occurred while he was working at one of his two Sunshine Coast practices, Mount Coolum Medical Centre.

Recent QCAT documents published last Friday reveal Dr Heath breached conditions imposed on his registration prior to that proceeding’s finalisation, by treating a patient’s nail bed injury in September 2020.

He had applied a tourniquet to the patient’s finger, injected local anaesthetic, and directed a nurse to apply silver nitrate.

“There is no criticism of his clinical skills or decision making, just that he breached a condition imposed on his registration which is of course, serious conduct by someone so experienced”, Judicial Member Robertson said when presiding over a hearing for the matter in August.

At that August hearing, the tribunal said the sanction would be settled after a further bout of proceedings against Dr Heath were finalised – which court documents reveal involved Dr Heath’s drug prescriptions to 19 patients at various times between at least 2011 and 2019.

The tribunal found in August that Dr Heath had failed to keep adequate clinical records relating to drug prescriptions and failed to report or obtain approvals as required.

They further found he had managed patients who he “knew or ought to have known were drug dependent” below the standard expected of an experienced GP.

Dr Heath was reprimanded and suspended for six months as a result, and conditions were imposed on his registration requiring him to be supervised when prescribing drugs of dependence.

At the time of that decision, Dr Heath argued against the suspension.

He said he had already been unable to practice from late 2023 to May 2024 due to yet another proceeding – which involved his “issues of maintaining appropriate professional boundaries with female patients in consultations concerning contraception,” court documents reveal.

In May 2024, a QCAT tribunal was told five women had made formal complaints about Dr Heath after seeking contraceptive-related treatment.

This included allegations Dr Heath had told one woman she “mustnt [sic] have had a good root for a while” after she brought up issues associated with an Implanon bar he had implanted.

Dr Heath denied making that comment.

His registration was suspended last October following the complaints, but the tribunal made the decision in May to allow him to continue treating female patients on the condition he did not conduct consultations or perform procedures involving contraceptive devices.

According to AHPRA, Dr Heath is currently still suspended after the August decision and restricted from treating female patients relating to contraceptive devices.

His second Sunshine Coast practice, Sunshine Beach Medical Centre, was permanently closed after he had to relinquish the lease prior to the May QCAT decision due to “severe financial hardship,” according to court documents.

In relation to the finger injury treated, Dr Heath admitted his actions constituted professional misconduct and agreed to pay a $10,000 fine within 14 months.

“My response was intuitive and based on more than three decades in practice,” Dr Heath wrote in an affidavit before the tribunal.

“Whilst I was there purely in an administrative role, my professional training took over,” he said.

In a decision delivered last Friday, Dr Heath was reprimanded and fined $10,000.

“The public and the medical profession at large must be reminded that the breach of conditions by practitioners is serious and intolerable and that adverse consequences will follow for such conduct,” Judicial Member Robertson said.