Physio who had sex with patient breached standards

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A physiotherapist who had sex with a woman he had been treating has been judged to have breached professional standards and may now face disciplinary proceedings.

The case against the health worker turns mainly on whether or not his professional relationship with her had ended several hours before they had sex.

The woman, who has children, attended fitness centre classes run by the physio. During a class, she developed pain in her shoulders and consulted the physio for treatment - nine sessions over five weeks.

The physio's notes of the ninth appointment record that the woman's injury had mostly settled, says Deputy Health and Disability Commissioner Theo Baker in a report on the case, which names neither party.

During that appointment they discussed movies and the physio, who had a large collection of DVDs, offered to lend some to the woman. By text later it was arranged that he drop some off that evening.

The woman's flatmate, who was not at the house at the time, had ordered pizza. It was delivered while the physio was there with the DVDs at around 7pm. The woman invited him to stay for pizza and the children were later put to bed.

"[The woman] stated that during the course of the night she and [the physio] had sexual intercourse more than once, and that they remained in the lounge until about 5am, at which time [he] left," Ms Baker said.

"The following day [he] contacted [her] repeatedly, and she told him that she did not want an ongoing relationship."

The physio's lawyer told the investigation that the health worker acknowledged there was a sexual encounter, but stated that after being invited into the woman's house he had confirmed with her "that he was no longer seeing her in a professional capacity".

Ms Baker said the woman's version was that there was no discussion about the physio no longer seeing her in a professional capacity and that it was her understanding that he was still her physio following the ninth appointment.

Ms Baker ruled that the professional relationship continued to exist at the time of the sexual encounter.

She said the physio had breached the code of patients' rights and she referred him to her director of proceedings for a decision on whether to lay charges at the Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal.