A Hamilton doctor who forced his wife to take mind-altering medicines has been fined and censured.
A Medical Council committee accused Dr Leon van Rhyn of disgraceful conduct over the treatment of his then-wife Margaret in 1996-1997.
But the Medical Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal has found him guilty of professional misconduct, a lesseroffence.
The doctor, acting as his wife's GP, did not physically compel her to ingest the anti-depressant and other mind-altering drugs, the tribunal said in a written decision, but did coerce her to take them without her consent.
"Dr van Rhyn cajoled, threatened and intimidated Mrs van Rhyn into taking aropax and oxazepam," the tribunal said.
In a 1999 Family Court affidavit, the doctor said: "It was frustrating to see [Mrs van Rhyn] refuse medication or counselling and I recall holding [her] by the shoulders and slightly shaking her on two occasions out of sheer frustration a few times in an attempt to wake her up out of her depressive pseudo/dementia but this was certainly not meant to be violent and did not cause any physical injuries whatsoever ... "
With their children, they had emigrated from South Africa in 1993. Mrs van Rhyn became very homesick and seriously depressed, eventually undergoing treatment in Waikato Hospital in 1997.
Dr van Rhyn told the tribunal his wife failed to appreciate the seriousness of her illness and resisted his efforts to have her assessed and treated by other doctors. He said he had no alternative but to treat her himself. The tribunal, citing other evidence, said Mrs van Rhyn was willing to seek help from people other than her husband and his colleagues.
The tribunal fined the doctor $5000, censured him, ordered him to pay costs of more than $28,000 and directed him to focus on ethical issues for a year with his general-practice overseer.
