A doctor accused of asking a male patient to perform sex acts before issuing prescriptions has been banned from the health service for 10 years.
The N.S.W 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, was guilty of unsatisfactory professional conduct and professional misconduct.
Dr. Chin, also known as Christopher Chin, was charged with sex offenses against the three patients in 2019 and 2020 but was found not guilty after trials.
Allegations made against him at the Tribunal 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 protruding rubber penis in front of a consultation.
He was also accused of grabbing the patient’s ears and pushing his pelvis towards the man’s face, mimicking fellatio, while saying “yes baby” in all incidents that took place between August 2016 and December of that year.
The Tribunal found the conduct of Dr. Chin towards that patient “completely inappropriate,” although the doctor’s attorney did not acknowledge these claims.
NCAT also labeled his behavior towards two other patients as ‘predatory’.
Dr. Chin’s lawyer admitted to “inappropriate behavior of a sexual nature” with a patient during a number of consultations in 2016.
A doctor banned from practicing for 10 years over a series of sexual misconduct claims (stock photo)
This included taking pictures of the man’s penis and touching it for no clinical reason, sending pictures of his own penis to the patient and performing and receiving oral sex on the patient.
He also kissed the patient and made sexual comments, including during a prostate examination, and pinched and pinched the patient’s nipples, the Tribunal heard.
This patient, who had become dependent on pain medication after surgery and had previously given testimony, said he feared Dr. Chin would not prescribe him the drugs if he did not engage in sexual activity, the Tribunal heard.
The patient accused Dr. Chin of deliberately addicting me to drugs so that he could provide prescriptions in exchange for sexual acts. I would never have done those things,” the Tribunal heard.
The patient told the Tribunal during a consultation that Dr. Chin said he would prescribe 10 prescription boxes if the man kissed and sucked his penis and then fellatio occurred on the doctor.
Then Dr. Chin the patient that he should have intercourse ‘for your next ten boxes’, the Tribunal heard.
Dr.’s lawyer Chin argued that his client used an ‘unfortunate choice of words’, but the Tribunal was not convinced that the doctor did not mean exactly what he had said.
The Tribunal found that Dr Chin had wrongly prescribed addiction and addiction medications, including benzodiazepines and opioids, without regard to the safety of patients whom he knew had a history of drug use.
Dr Chen’s medical notes also showed an unprofessional attitude and lack of respect for patients, the Tribunal found.
The banned doctor turned out to have prescribed addictive painkillers without medical justification
He wrote about a patient saying he would do a prostate exam without lubricant if he lied about a certain issue.
He called another patient “chicken shit” and said it was “funny” that another patient’s wife had not left him.
Dr. Chin also failed to record certain aspects of the patients’ medical histories, in one case his opioid addiction.
The Tribunal described Dr Chin’s sexual conduct towards his patients as a ‘blatant breach of his professional duties’ and rejected his claim that he had a relationship or friendship with two of them.
Dr Chin’s unauthorized prescribing of the drugs, nor any attempt to divert patients from them, was ‘disgraceful’, the Tribunal ruled.
After registering as a NSW doctor on December 12, 1985, Dr. Chin until he was suspended in 2019 following complaints that patients filed with the police.
With his registration canceled for 10 years without possibility of review, Dr. Chin has indicated that he has no intention of practicing medicine again.