After being suspended from practice for a year because of an affair with a patient (see CMAJ 2000;163[7]:876), Dr. William Hunter Blair is once again treating patients in Barrington Passage, NS. The community responded to his return to work with a party in the parking lot of his clinic.
Blair, 61, said the party provided a rare chance to connect with patients. “In medicine you don't often get an opportunity to find out how your clientele feel about you.”
He said many of his patients told him they had awaited his return and did not see another doctor during his suspension. Residents had shown strong support for Blair, 1 of 3 physicians in Barrington Passage, since the Nova Scotia college found him guilty of professional misconduct for having a consensual sexual relationship with a patient he had treated for bipolar disorder.
Residents protested the decision and presented the college with a 4000-signature petition, but Registrar Cameron Little refused to budge: “You can't have one person slapped on the wrist when for the same thing someone else's licence is removed,” he said.