Perth doctor Nicholas Forgione admits having sex with patient in consulting room
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Sex on the floor, Italian music and breast examinations: Top doctor’s career ends in disgrace as he admits to affair with a female patient
- Perth doctor Nicholas Forgione admits five-year affair with married patient
- Doctor says he will retire after being found guilty of professional misconduct
- Affair started in consulting rooms and continued while doctor treated patient
- Tribunal hands down four-year ban and orders Dr Forgione pay costs of $11,000
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An affair that started on the floor of a consulting room has led to one of Perth’s top doctors exiting the profession in disgrace.
Dr Nicholas Forgione, 72, was found guilty of professional misconduct over a five-year affair with a female patient that caused him to announce his retirement in 2019.
Despite Dr Forgione admitting to the transgressions and demonstrating remorse, the State Administrative Tribunal handed down a four-year ban from practicing medicine and ordered him to pay costs of $11,000.
Dr Nicholas Forgione’s distinguished medical career has ended in disgrace after he admitted to having a five-year affair with a patient and was found guilty of professional misconduct
The woman first went to Dr Forgione when he was a GP in May 1992 over various concerns to do with her pregnancy, mental health and the health of her young son.
From then until January 2020 she had over 100 consultations with Dr Forgione, which included breast examinations, prescriptions for anti-depressants and referrals to psychologists.
During a consultation over a chest infection in September 2012 the patient told Dr Forgione about her unhappy marriage and he suggested she leave her husband.
The patient played a CD in Italian and asked Dr Forgione to translate it, which he did before leaning over to kiss her.
‘(Forgione) told the patient to get on the floor, and they engaged in sexual intercourse on the floor and on the consultation table,’ the ruling stated.
From then until February 2018, Dr Forgione and the patient engaged in further sexual relations in the consulting rooms of a medical centre after his colleagues had left.
The also went to a hotel together, went on shopping trips and exchanged ‘inappropriate text messages and emails of a sexual and/or inappropriate nature’.
Dr Forgione had a distinguished 42-year career including being director of Emergency Services at Princess Margaret Hospital
Dr Fargione also gave the woman amounts of money between $50 and $700 and paid for goods that included ‘groceries, clothes, flights, concert tickets and gifts’.
The Medical Board of Australia began investigating Dr Forgione for misconduct in 2019 before eventually surrendering his registration.
Mr Forgione told them he would retire in December of that year.
In handing down its ruling the tribunal recognised mitigating factors such as family illness and other issues, as well as Dr Forgione’s own battle with bowel cancer.
However it concluded Dr Forgione engaged in ‘sexual misconduct of a most serious nature which ‘strikes at the heart of the doctor-patient relationship’.
The tribunal also noted Dr Forgione’s distinguished 45-year medical career, which included being a director of Emergency Services at Princess Margaret Hospital and a Medical Administrator at Royal Perth Hospital.
Dr Forgione also had advisory roles with Diabetes WA Primary Care Group, Notre Dame University and Curtin University’s Centre for Clinical Research.