A doctor accused of asking a patient for sexual acts before giving him prescriptions has been banned from healthcare for 10 years.
He New South Wales The Civil and Administrative Tribunal ruled last Friday that Dr Thean Soo Chin, who had a practice in the Wollongong suburb of Balgownie, south of Sydney, had engaged in unsatisfactory professional conduct and professional misconduct.
Dr Chin, also known as Christopher Chin, was charged in 2019 and 2020 with sexual offenses against the three patients, but was found not guilty following trials.
Allegations made against him in court by the Healthcare Complaints Commission included touching a patient’s buttocks while saying “soft ass” and wearing an apron with a naked man and a rubber penis sticking out for a consultation.
He was also accused of grabbing the patient’s ears and pushing his pelvis into the man’s face, simulating fellatio, while saying ‘yes baby’ with all incidents occurring between August 2016 and December of that year.
The Court found Dr. Chin’s conduct toward that patient “totally inappropriate,” although the doctor’s lawyer did not admit these claims.
The NCAT also criticized her behavior towards two other patients as “predatory”.
Dr. Chin’s lawyer admitted to “inappropriate behavior of a sexual nature” with a patient during several consultations in 2016.
A doctor has been banned from practicing for 10 years over a series of sexual misconduct allegations (file image pictured)
This included taking photographs of the man’s penis and touching it for no clinical reason, sending the patient photographs of his own penis, as well as performing and receiving oral sex on the patient.
He also kissed the patient and made sexual comments, including during a prostate exam, as well as pinching and squeezing the patient’s nipples, the Court heard.
This patient, who had become dependent on painkillers after surgery and had previously given evidence, said he feared Dr Chin would not prescribe the medication if he did not engage in sexual activity, the Court heard.
The patient accused Dr Chin of deliberately making me addicted to drugs so that he could offer me prescriptions in exchange for sexual acts. I would never have done those things,’ the Court heard.
The patient told the Court during a consultation that Dr Chin said he would prescribe 10 boxes of prescription drugs if the man kissed and sucked his penis and subsequently performed fellatio on the doctor.
Dr Chin subsequently told the patient she would have to have sex “for the next ten boxes”, the Court heard.
Dr Chin’s lawyer argued that his client used an “unfortunate phrase”, but the Court was not convinced that the doctor did not mean exactly what he had said.
The Court concluded that Dr. Chin improperly prescribed drugs of dependence and addiction, including benzodiazepines and opioids, without regard to the safety of patients he knew had a history of drug use.
The medical notes Dr Chen made also showed an unprofessional attitude and lack of respect towards patients, the Court found.
The banned doctor was found to have prescribed addictive painkillers without medical justification.
He wrote about a patient who would do a prostate exam without lubricant if he was lying about an issue.
He referred to another patient as “chicken shit” and said it was “curious” another patient’s wife had not abandoned him.
Dr. Chin also failed to record certain aspects of the patients’ medical history, in one case their addiction to opioids.
The Court called Dr Chin’s sexual conduct towards his patients a “flagrant breach of his professional obligations” and rejected his claim that he had a relationship or friendship with two of them.
Dr Chin’s prescribing of the drugs without authorization and his attempt to wean patients off them was “shameful”, the Court found.
After registering as a New South Wales doctor on December 12, 1985, Dr Chin practiced until he was suspended in 2019 following complaints made by patients to police.
With his registration canceled without possibility of review for 10 years, Dr. Chin has indicated that he has no intention of practicing medicine again.