Lust ... what the Doctor ordered

A VILLAGE doctor has scandalised her surgery over affairs with two patients at her practice.

And in a dramatic twist that could have been penned for hit BBC drama Doctor Foster, she then accessed the medical records of her lovers — and their families.

Married mum-of-two Clare Nettleton, 46, who has been suspended, first had an affair with a family friend who later became one of her patients.

She then became “intimate” with another patient, who was married.

But when her husband found out she was kicked out of the family home they shared with their son and daughter.

A disciplinary panel found the GP of 20 years wrongly accessed the medical records of both men.

She also accessed the records of the wife and children of the second man, the hearing heard.

Nettleton has since apologised to his wife and has been on an NHS course in “maintaining proper boundaries” at a Buddhist retreat in London.

BBC drama ... Doctor Foster Des Willie/BBC

Her case has echoes of hit BBC drama Doctor Foster.

It stars former Coronation Street actress Suranne Jones as a GP who uncovers her husband’s affair and secret double life.

Nettleton lists her main medical interests as “young people’s emotional and sexual health”.

But her flings with two patients got her hauled in front of a “fitness to practise” panel at the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service in Manchester.

It heard she had an affair with a family friend, known as Patient A, which ended in 2010. When she began working full-time at Williton Surgery, in Somerset, in 2013 she realised she was scheduled to treat him.
She asked for him to be moved to another GP because of their previous contact.

Nettleton told a colleague he might be depressed after a failed relationship.

But she then began accessing his medical records on various occasions.

She later held two consultations with Patient A where he was prescribed the tranquilliser diazepam. She also failed to refer him to a counsellor, despite noting that she thought it was required.

Claire Nettleton ... reprimanded for misconduct Cavendish Press

Affair number two began when Nettleton “hit it off” with married Patient X at a New Year’s Eve party at a village hall.

He contacted her through the business-based social networking site LinkedIn two weeks later.

They met for coffees at a local cafe and spoke by text message.

Their relationship was kept secret from their spouses and was said to have been limited to “hand-holding and kissing”.

But Nettleton later admitted to being in love with him, calling him her “soulmate.”

She also told the hearing that they had discussed their unhappy marriages and said she “felt galvanised” by their relationship.

The panel asked Nettleton why she felt the need to access the medical records of Patient X and his family shortly after.

Scorned ... Nettleton's husband Andrew Lloyd

She admitted there was “no medical need” and claimed she did it to remind herself what his children’s names were.

The hearing was also told that Nettleton altered Patient X’s medical records to indicate that an earlier consultation was by phone rather than face-to-face.

Nettleton has now left the surgery and was advised by colleagues to refer herself to the General Medical Council.

The tribunal found her guilty of misconduct and suspended her from the medical register for three months.

Panel chairman Andrew Gell said her relationship with Patient X was “not inappropriate” as he made the first contact with her.

But he said her accessing of Patient A’s medical records was a “serious abuse” of her position.

And he said accessing the records of Patient X’s family also crossed professional boundaries and would be regarded as “deplorable” by her fellow GPs.

The GP’s hubby, Chris Davis, 51, was last night not at the home they shared in Watchet, Devon.

Nettleton is now living with another man in nearby Dunster, Somerset. She refused to comment last night.