The interesting career of John Harding Price
Last week the Irish Sunday Times ran an article about psychiatrist John Harding Price who has been struck-off the Medical Registrar in the UK but is still able to practise in the Irish Republic.
John Harding Price worked as a locum in two Irish hospitals in 2000, applying for the first post as soon as he was suspended from the UK Medical Register pending a full investigation of the allegations against him. He was the only applicant, was able to produce two recent letters of reference from fellow-psychiatrists and was offered the post without an interview. In January 2001 the full investigation of the UK General Medical Council took place and Harding Price was duly struck off the UK Medical Register. (He was later to lose an appeal to the Privy Council) By this time, thanks to an alert secretary who had spotted an article about the psychiatrist in an English newspaper, the Irish Department of Health was aware of the situation and didn't offer him further employment. However he remains on the Irish Medical Register.
The Irish Independent published an article about Harding Price entitled "Consultant banned as 'risk to public' by UK council" (Oct 31 2001)
I have been unable to find any information about Harding Price's behaviour in the 1970s, but two court cases reveal something of his financial misconduct in the 1980s.
One concerned a woman who had had a leucotomy. The court described her as having "suffered episodes of a mental illness which originated in her being a victim of wartime bombing in London." She was said to have been a patient of Dr John Harding Price for many years. In 1983 she gave him 73,000 pounds to invest in his nursing home business. The money was returned to her on the insistence of her solicitors, and Harding Price was suspended from his job as a consultant psychiatrist at the Lawns Hospital, Lincoln. (The court case was actually the women suing her solicitors. She appears to have remained loyal to Harding Price.)
The second case concerned two properties in Florida, which Harding Price bought from a patient for a knock-down price (about half their market value). The man later sued for the return of the houses and the High Court found in his favour, ruling that Harding Price had exploited the trust placed in him, and ordering him to return the houses. However the case took a long time to come to court - 9 years from writ to judgement plus a couple for the unsucessful appeal - and Harding Price took his case to the European Court, claiming his rights under Article 6.1 of the European Convention of Human Rights had been violated. (Article 6.1 states that "In the determination of his civil rights and obligations or of any criminal charge against him, everyone is entitled to a fair and public hearing within a reasonable time...) Harding Price won, but the Court awarded him only 1,000 euros (about 1,200 US dollars) in damages, instead of the more than half a million pounds, plus exemplary damages, he had asked for.
But it was Harding Price’s inappropriate interest in his patients’ sex lives and not his property dealings that finally led to him being struck of the Medical Register. Thirty years earlier, Harding Price had authored a textbook called “Psychiatric Investigations” in which he shows rather too much interest in patients’ sex lives in a not very nice way.
Harding Price remains the Press Officer at the Society of Clinical Psychiatrists, which was chaired by Michael Haslam until he was jailed for sex offences against patients.
A DISGRACED psychiatrist banned from working in Britain is now operating a part-time private practice from a Dublin hotel.
John Harding Price, 74, was struck off the medical register in Britain five years ago after three female patients made allegations of sexual misconduct against him. Unable to practise in Britain, he moved to Ireland and worked as a locum doctor in psychiatric hospitals in Clonmel and Kilkenny.....
John Harding Price worked as a locum in two Irish hospitals in 2000, applying for the first post as soon as he was suspended from the UK Medical Register pending a full investigation of the allegations against him. He was the only applicant, was able to produce two recent letters of reference from fellow-psychiatrists and was offered the post without an interview. In January 2001 the full investigation of the UK General Medical Council took place and Harding Price was duly struck off the UK Medical Register. (He was later to lose an appeal to the Privy Council) By this time, thanks to an alert secretary who had spotted an article about the psychiatrist in an English newspaper, the Irish Department of Health was aware of the situation and didn't offer him further employment. However he remains on the Irish Medical Register.
The Irish Independent published an article about Harding Price entitled "Consultant banned as 'risk to public' by UK council" (Oct 31 2001)
WHEN consultant psychiatrist John Harding Price was engaged by the South Eastern Health Board he brought with him a lengthy history of charges, allegations and admonishments over events dating back to 1972, most of which was unknown to the health board at the time.
It was only after his contract with the South Eastern Health Board ended last year that Britain's General Medical Council removed him from the register, deeming him to be "a risk to the public".
Dr Price has appealed this decision and he is awaiting the outcome of that appeal.
The 72-year-old doctor was also "admonished in the strongest terms" by Britain's General Medical Council in 1986 for "serious professional misconduct".
This followed a whole series of charges in 1986 which included persuading a patient with dementia to sign over share certificates, falsely billing NHS patients, and wrongly directing patients to his own, unregistered nursing home for profit. Some additional charges were rejected for "lack of evidence".
He was finally struck off with immediate effect by the doctors' ruling body last December 2000 for "inappropriate" and "improper" conduct and "serious professional misconduct", which included fondling the breasts of a 19-year-old female patient referred to him for treatment for persistent nightmares.
After being struck off, he immediately lodged an appeal, which was heard by the Privy Council in Downing Street earlier this month. Judgment was reserved and will be delivered in the next few weeks.
The GMC said it found "a serious deficiency in both (Harding Price's) communication skills and attitude towards patients" and considered him a "risk to the public".
The vulnerable young woman, one of several to complain, was told by Harding Price to strip to her underwear. He then cupped and fondled her breasts after undoing her bra, put his hand in her pants and slapped her bottom during the consultation in 1998.
The charges which eventually saw him struck off included an incident on August 22, 1998 when a "Ms X" attended his Lincoln medical and he removed her bra without consent; unnecessarily kept her undressed; removed her underwear without consent while pretending to examine her back.
On March 10, 1998 he caused distress to a "Mrs Y" by persisting in asking detailed and intimate questions about her sex life with her husband without offering any purpose or relevance.
He then wrote to her husband with details of the exchanges without her knowledge or permission.
On June 6, 1999, as duty doctor at Grimsby Primary Care Centre, he persistently quizzed a young woman who complained of severe headache, about her sex life and financial position.
In 1986 the General Medical Council formally admonished Harding Price. In 2000, the GMC wasted no time in immediately "erasing" him from its register.
Bernard Purcell, London Editor
I have been unable to find any information about Harding Price's behaviour in the 1970s, but two court cases reveal something of his financial misconduct in the 1980s.
One concerned a woman who had had a leucotomy. The court described her as having "suffered episodes of a mental illness which originated in her being a victim of wartime bombing in London." She was said to have been a patient of Dr John Harding Price for many years. In 1983 she gave him 73,000 pounds to invest in his nursing home business. The money was returned to her on the insistence of her solicitors, and Harding Price was suspended from his job as a consultant psychiatrist at the Lawns Hospital, Lincoln. (The court case was actually the women suing her solicitors. She appears to have remained loyal to Harding Price.)
The second case concerned two properties in Florida, which Harding Price bought from a patient for a knock-down price (about half their market value). The man later sued for the return of the houses and the High Court found in his favour, ruling that Harding Price had exploited the trust placed in him, and ordering him to return the houses. However the case took a long time to come to court - 9 years from writ to judgement plus a couple for the unsucessful appeal - and Harding Price took his case to the European Court, claiming his rights under Article 6.1 of the European Convention of Human Rights had been violated. (Article 6.1 states that "In the determination of his civil rights and obligations or of any criminal charge against him, everyone is entitled to a fair and public hearing within a reasonable time...) Harding Price won, but the Court awarded him only 1,000 euros (about 1,200 US dollars) in damages, instead of the more than half a million pounds, plus exemplary damages, he had asked for.
But it was Harding Price’s inappropriate interest in his patients’ sex lives and not his property dealings that finally led to him being struck of the Medical Register. Thirty years earlier, Harding Price had authored a textbook called “Psychiatric Investigations” in which he shows rather too much interest in patients’ sex lives in a not very nice way.
Harding Price remains the Press Officer at the Society of Clinical Psychiatrists, which was chaired by Michael Haslam until he was jailed for sex offences against patients.
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