Professional Accountability And Patient Safety

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PROFESSIONAL ACCOUNTABILITY AND PATIENT SAFETY
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This paper examines a typical case of professional misconduct involving a registered
nurse Mr Timothy Buckby and two of his patients identified as Patient A and Patient B
presented the State Administrative Tribunal of Western Australia by The Nursing and
Midwifery Board of Australia and filed as case number VR 91 of 2014 accessed via link
address http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/sinodisp/au/cases/wa/WASAT/2015/19.html?
stem=0&synonyms=0&query=buckby. The board accused Mr. Buckby of having a sexual
relationship with Patient A in February 2012 and went ahead to contact her even after she
was discharged and engage in sexual acts with her. Patient A was a 48-year old voluntary
mental inpatient admitted at Joondalup Health Campus Mental Health Unit between 12th
February 2012 and or about 27th February 2012. The patient had been admitted to the Unit
for treatment of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) following a road accident in April
2011 and workplace distress. Patient B was a 55-year-old lady suffering from depression and
was admitted to the facility on 22 June 2012.
In its submissions before the tribunal, the board professed that one evening, Mr.
Buckby, then an employee of Joondalup Health Campus in West Australia state, made his
way to Patient A’s room where he sat on her bed before caressing her. Later, on an ensuing
night, the Respondent went into Patient A's room, shut the entryway, kissed Patient A,
pushed his groin against her and constrained her to contact his penis. On another event, while
Patient A was an inpatient at the unit, the Respondent went into Patient A's room conveying
towels and shut the way to the room. While in Patient A's room, the Respondent instructed
Patient A to rests on the bed and secured her mouth with his hand, following which he had
sex with her. On a few events following this occasion, the Respondent went into Patient A's
room on the falsification of conveying towels and contacted and kissed Patient A. Following
Patient A's release from the unit on 27 February 2012, the Practitioner on numerous
occasions called Patient A for sex. Amid different discussions between the Respondent and

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Patient A following her release from the Unit, the Respondent unveiled secret patient data,
including data identified with the demise of a youthful female patient at the Unit, to Patient
A.
Later, Patient B was admitted to the unit as a voluntary patient. Shortly after her
admission to the Unit, Patient B was crying. The next day, the Respondent came into Patient
B's room and expressed his worries over the latter’s condition especially the previous day and
said that he wished to give her a hug, which she gave in. From that day, the Respondent
would consistently go to Patient B's room on the unit and close the entryway, following
which he and Patient B would kiss and embrace one another. On a few events during Patient
B's admission at the Unit, the respondent would leave his rostered shift on the Psychiatric
Intensive Care Unit at Joondalup Health Campus (PICU) and go to the Unit to meet Patient B
in her room. On 9th July 2012, Patient B informed a resident psychologist, that she was
having a 'toss' with the respondent and that they had been kissing in her room. Staff at the
unit additionally got an independent report of the connection between Patient B and the
respondent from Patient B's roommate at the unit. The matter was taken up by the Nursing
and Midwifery Board of Australia and Mr. Buckby was later found guilty of all the charges
leveled against him by the board and was subsequently reprimanded, disqualified from
practice for seven years and slapped with a bill of all the Board’s coasts.
The practitioner faced several counts of professional misconduct including; entering
into an intimate association with Patient A when he knew, that Patient A was in an incapable
mental state; engaging in a sexual association with Patient A; telephoning Patient A on
various occasions thus transgressing his professional boundaries with the patient; and visiting
at Patient A's home on two events. As pertains to Patient B, the respondent was indicted for
hugging and kissing Patient B while she was an inpatient at the unit when he knew or should
sensibly have known, that Patient B was of a vulnerable state of mind, as well as engaged in