Doctor is accused of affair with patient and bugging surgery
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A female GP had an affair with a male patient and then helped him to secretly bug the office of a fellow doctor, a disciplinary hearing of the General Medical Council was told yesterday. Dr Yvonne Hunniford was allegedly involved in the plot to plant a listening device in the consulting room of her colleague, Dr Jeremy Stupple, after he had an affair with a health visitor at the practice where they all worked.
A female GP had an affair with a male patient and then helped him to secretly bug the office of a fellow doctor, a disciplinary hearing of the General Medical Council was told yesterday. Dr Yvonne Hunniford was allegedly involved in the plot to plant a listening device in the consulting room of her colleague, Dr Jeremy Stupple, after he had an affair with a health visitor at the practice where they all worked.
Working relationships between staff at the Cathedral Medical Group in Chichester broke down to such an extent that the practice was swept for bugs by a security firm and other doctors clandestinely taped Dr Hunniford as they accused her of having the affair with her patient. Dr Hunniford is charged with serious professional misconduct in relation to having an inappropriate relationship with the patient, known as Mr B.
She is also accused of abusing her position to help Mr B in his application for council housing, and of helping to bug Dr Stupple's rooms. She denies the charges. The GMC hearing was told that Dr Hunniford had joined the practice in 1992 and allegedly began an affair with Mr B in 2000. The couple attended social occasions involving the practice but the five other GP partners said they were unaware that Mr B was a patient of Dr Hunniford.
They claim Dr Hunniford introduced Mr B as her boyfriend, although she claims he was simply a "valued friend" of 10 years. Problems began in late 2002, when a health visitor at the practice, Miss P, had an affair with Dr Stupple. He had already faced a GMC hearing 15 years earlier over allegations that he was having sex with two female patients, but was cleared.
Lynn Griffin, the counsel for the GMC, told the hearing that as the affair between Dr Stupple and the health visitor declined, Miss P's behaviour became "erratic". Disciplinary proceedings were brought against Miss P, who was a friend of Dr Hunniford and Mr B. It was then, it is alleged, that Mr B, Miss P and Dr Hunniford planted a small listening device behind a filing cabinet in Dr Stupple's consulting room.
Ms Griffin said Dr Hunniford and Mr B had listened to the bug from a car radio, while Miss P had shown a fellow nurse how she could track the device via a mobile phone. It is alleged that Dr Hunniford helped plant the device, and assisted in changing its batteries.
At the same time as the bugging plot, Dr Hunniford helped Mr B in his application for council housing. She wrote two letters to Chichester District Council in support of his application and attended a meeting with a housing official where she backed up his claims about a medical condition.
But, the hearing was told, she did not tell officials that she was his GP or that she was having a relationship with him. The housing official became suspicious when by chance, she saw Dr Hunniford and Mr B holding hands in a supermarket just hours after the meeting.
By February 2003, the practice doctors became aware that Mr B was on Dr Hunniford's patient list and that Mr B was also acting for Miss P in her case. When details about the disciplinary process were leaked to a local primary care trust, the surgery's practice managertold the partners that she thought they were being bugged. A security firm was brought in to "sweep" the premises.
The other partners then asked Dr Hunniford to a meeting where they confronted her about the alleged affair and the device. They recorded the meeting without her knowledge. She angrily denied taking part in the bugging plot and saidher friendship with Mr B was not sexual.
Ms Griffin said: "This is more than a valued friendship, but an adult and intimate relationship of a sexual nature."
The hearing continues.