The body that regulates doctors in Newfoundland and Labrador says it would have been wrong to have passed on an unproven allegation about a suspended psychiatrist to a similar authority in New Brunswick.

James Hanley closed his psychiatric practice in St. John's in 2005, before relocating to New Brunswick.
(CBC)

The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Newfoundland and Labrador revoked former St. John's psychiatrist James Hanley's medical privileges at a hearing in March, following a complaint by a former patient with whom he had had a sexual relationship.

Because Hanley had relocated to New Brunswick, the college there followed suit, and suspended his licence.

Last week, the New Brunswick college said it had learned that a second woman had filed a complaint in Newfoundland and Labrador against Hanley, but had withdrawn it.

N.B. registrar Ed Schollenberg said he ought to have been told that information.

Robert Young, registrar of the Newfoundland and Labrador college, said it had no obligation to share the detail.

Robert Young said Newfoundland and Labrador's college did not want to share an unproven allegation.
(CBC)

"When we do something, we do it publicly. We don't do it under the table," he said.

Young said the New Brunswick board was given the information necessary to make its own decision.

Schollenberg said the fact that a second complaint had once been filed was salient, as it ran contrary to the assumption that Hanley's sexual relationship with a patient was an isolated incident.

Hanley had been working, until last Friday, at Canadian Forces Base Gagetown in New Brunswick, although he was not able to treat patients once his licence was suspended.

The New Brunswick college had been preparing a hearing on whether to reinstate Hanley's privileges.

However, the Department of National Defence says that in light of the second complaint, it is no longer interested in renewing Hanley's contract.