'Risk taking' doctor banned after paying patient for sex
A DOCTOR and former Cleo Bachelor of the Year finalist has again been banned from practising medicine after admitting he paid a prostitute he had examined $50 for oral sex.
Richard Young, 42, had his registration suspended in 2001 for having sexual relationships with two patients who were sex workers.
Dr Young, a former Ivanhoe Grammar student and University of Melbourne graduate, was then reprimanded, cautioned and ordered to have counselling in 2006 after making inappropriate comments to a patient during a pap smear.
The Melbourne doctor, who admitted having a ''risk-taking'' personality, was also found to have conducted an unnecessary internal examination of the patient.
In a decision by the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal last week, Dr Young's registration was cancelled and he was disqualified until next July.
Sex with the prostitute, identified as AB, in March also breached a 2003 condition on his registration that he not have any sexual or personal relationship with a patient.
Dr Young denied the allegation that he knew that AB was drug-dependent and that another doctor at his clinic held a methadone permit for her. But he admitted he should have known.
While members of the tribunal accepted his denial, they found that his prescribing a potentially deadly painkiller to the woman - a risk discovered by a pharmacist - amounted to serious unprofessional conduct.
A defence barrister, Sean Cash, told the hearing, brought by the Medical Board of Australia, that Dr Young's conduct with the patient in 2004 was not illegal or predatory but consensual and isolated.
Mr Cash said suspension of his client's registration was sufficient and cancellation would be wrong, as Dr Young was a different person to six years ago.
A psychiatrist, one of a number who have treated Dr Young, said he was more stable and insightful and the public ''now has nothing to fear from him''.
Dr Young, suspended since 2008, is now engaged to be married and is a partner in a noodle bar restaurant.
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