Suffolk: GP ‘lied about affairs with patients’

A MARRIED Suffolk GP lied repeatedly about his affairs with two patients in a “calculated attempt to deceive his colleagues”, a panel has ruled.

When one of Dr Graeme Elvin’s trysts was uncovered, he was punched outside his surgery by his lover’s husband but continued to deny the illicit relationship to colleagues.

A General Medical Council (GMC) fitness to practise panel found his behaviour to be “misleading” and “dishonest”.

The doctor was practising at Hardwicke House Surgery in Sudbury when he began his first extramarital affair with a woman referred to as Patient A in 2006.

He eventually ended the affair in April 2008, saying he wanted to spend more time with his daughter but unbeknownst to the jilted lover, he was already seeing a woman referred to as Mrs C.

Living close to the surgery, Patient A continued to bump into the doctor who was treating her husband, Patient B, for an arthritic hip.

Problems came to a head when Mrs C made an unexpected visit to Patient A as part of a campaign against her love rival.

The campaign culminated with Mrs C telling Patient B about his wife’s affair with their GP.

Patient B confronted Dr Elvin, who now lives in Holland, in the surgery car park and assaulted him in June 2009. He was later cautioned by the police.

Dr Elvin, who eventually left his wife for Mrs C, admitted conducting an inappropriate relationship with Patient A and lying about it to colleagues.