Military not keen to keep suspended psychiatrist

Military officials are now no longer interested in retaining the services of a former St. John's psychiatrist who has lost medical privileges in two provinces.

Dr. James Hanley had relocated to Canadian Forces Base Gagetown in New Brunswick before losing his medical licence in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Hanley lost his privileges because he had a sexual relationship with a woman he was also treating as a patient.

The College of Physicians and Surgeons of New Brunswick, which subsequently suspended Hanley's licence, had been planning a hearing on whether to reinstate Hanley's privileges.

Last week, the college disclosed that it had learned a second woman had filed a similar complaint with the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Newfoundland and Labrador, but had withdrawn it.

Cmdr. Dale Romeo, acting director of health services delivery with the Department of National Defence, said the military is no longer keen to keep Hanley at the base.

"The second complaint does change things, and at this time we have no intention of offering him a new contract," Romeo said.

Hanley's contract, by coincidence, expired on Friday. He had not been treating patients while his licence was suspended.

Ed Schollenberg, the registrar of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New Brunswick, said he had been receiving pressure from military officials to reinstate Hanley's privileges.

Schollenberg, meanwhile, said that the Newfoundland and Labrador college ought to have to disclosed to him earlier that there had been a second complainant, even if the woman had withdrawn her complaint.

"We would have disclosed it. I think by all logic it tends to change one's perception of events," he told CBC News.

The Newfoundland and Labrador college issued a statement Friday saying that it could neither neither confirm nor deny any allegations regarding Hanley.