CAN ONE BE A GOOD DOCTOR AND HAVE A SEXUAL RELATIONSHIP WITH ONES PATIENT

This paper presents a qualitative exploration of social and sexual con tact between general practitioners and their patients. Social contacts have been implicated in the development of sexual relationships betwe en members of the mental health professions and their patients. Howeve r, there has been little examination of the implications for general p ractitioners. Six focus groups were conducted by teleconference with N ew Zealand general practitioners. Participant anonymity was maintained . Questions focused on issues of social and sexual contact in general practice. Major themes were extracted from the data. A range of defini tions of 'patient', 'sexual contact' and 'social contact' were offered by the participants which demonstrated that 'grey areas' existed for them in relation to social and sexual relationships with patients. Man datory reporting of colleagues for alleged sexual misconduct was not s upported, informal mechanisms being preferred. General practitioners n eed to be aware of potential boundary violations in their practice. Th ese issues are also important to address in the teaching of medical st udents, continuing medical education, and in the development of approp riate guidelines for general practice.