GP to get a chaperone

Dr Vijay Harypursat enters his disciplinary tribunal hearing in Onerahi.

A Whangarei GP who admitted to a charge of professional misconduct over text messaging a vulnerable young female patient can continue working as a doctor until the Health Practitioners' Disciplinary Tribunal decides on the appropriate penalty.

Dr Vijay Harypursat last week appeared before the tribunal over a complaint that he sent a "flurry of text messages" of a personal, intimate or romantic nature to a 22-year-old patient with mental health issues he became attracted to over a six-week period in April and May 2013. The name of the medical centre where he was working at the time has been suppressed.

He was placed under formal clinical supervision and ordered to undergo counselling in early 2012 after another patient, a 14-year-old girl who sought treatment from him, complained to the PHO that Dr Harypursat sent text messages of a personal nature to her.

The Medical Council said subject to several special conditions imposed under the Health Practitioners' Competence Assurance Act 2003 that restricted his contact with patients, Dr Harypursat could continue to practice pending the tribunal's order on penalty. Those conditions, the council said, were aimed at applying appropriate patient safeguards pending the tribunal's decision. Should his registration be cancelled or suspended, the council determined the date from which the order took effect.

Dr Harypursat's practising certificate is currently valid and will expire on February 29, 2016. The tribunal can order a range of penalties under the act.

They include cancelling his registration or suspending it for not more than three years, censure him, impose a fine not exceeding $30,000, order he pay part or the entire cost of investigating the complaint against him, and order that he practice with certain conditions.

His current conditions of practice is to have a chaperone present when seeing female patients, including any examination of, or consultation with, them. He is to maintain a list of any patients seen in the presence of a chaperone, identifying who the chaperone was, including their name, and position or relationship to patient.

Dr Harypursat is to advise any employer that he must not undertake any examination of, or consultation with a female patient, without a chaperone being present.

Dr Harypursat will have to meet a clinical supervisor approved by the Medical Council's registrar monthly to discuss all patients he has seen for psychological issues.