Some UK med students think sex OK with patients

Forty percent of medical students in Scotland believe they could justify having sex with a patient, according to a poll published on Tuesday.

In a small study of 62 students reported in the Journal of Medical Ethics, the students said it would be acceptable in certain situations.

"The issue of sexual relationships between doctors and former patients remains an area of debate among the medical profession," said Dr John Goldie, of the University of Glasgow, who conducted the survey.

He and his colleagues questioned medical students in Glasgow four different times during their medical training and asked how they would react in certain situations.

In one scenario the students were asked if they would accept an invitation to dinner from a patient who was finishing a lengthy treatment if they were the only doctor on a small, remote Scottish island.

Sixty percent said they would decline because it would be unethical and would compromise the doctor-patient relationship.

But the remaining students said they would accept because they thought they could keep their public and private lives separate or due to the difficulty of meeting someone in such an isolated place.

Although sexual relationship between a doctor and patient are prohibited by the codes of ethics established by professional organizations, Goldie and his colleagues said researchers had previously estimated that 11 percent of family doctors in the United States have had a sexual relationship with at least one patient.

Another survey of Australian doctors showed 32 percent knew of a colleague who had had sex with a patient. In a similar survey in Canada the number was 10 percent.

Psychiatrists, gynecologists and general practitioners are significantly more like to have an affair with a patient than other specialists, according to the researchers.

The risk also increases with age.

"Traditional medical education has inadequately tackled the issue," Goldie said in the journal.