A hearing started today for an Invercargill doctor who is refusing to settle over a privacy complaint, saying it would be "moral cowardice".
Robert Henderson told a nursing home that one of its employees was a drug addict.
The hearing between the director of human rights proceedings and Dr Henderson started in Invercargill District Court today, the New Zealand Doctor magazine website reported.
The complainant, whose name is suppressed, was the first witness today.
The case involves events dating back to 2003 when Dr Henderson, concerned about the complainant's alleged drug-seeking behaviour, contacted her employer, a resthome, to raise those concerns.
Dr Henderson said the complainant, a caregiver, might intercept drugs intended for residents at the home and he was concerned about the residents' safety.
The woman complained to the Privacy Commissioner who, while dealing with the matter, also referred it to the Human Rights Review Tribunal.
Dr Henderson was chair of the Invercargill Urgent Doctors Service which had an alert on the complainant as a drug-seeking patient.
This dated back to 1999 when the service's manager alleged it was the complainant who was caught in the service's drug room attempting to take drugs.
Although police were contacted at the time, the person was never formally apprehended or identified.
The woman told the hearing that she was not the person seeking drugs.
She did not live in Invercargill at the time, although she said she had visited in 1998 to attend her father's and brother's funeral.
The current complaint relates to Dr Henderson's phone call in 2003. However, the drug-seeking incident in 1999 at the Urgent Doctors service was raised by Dr Henderson's lawyer Chris Hodson to show the complainant was considered a drug seeker.
Earlier this month, Dr Henderson said the Office of Human Rights Proceedings was urging him to settle out of court.
It considered a fair settlement would be for him to pay $5500, costs of $950, write a letter of apology and undertake training in privacy protocols.
Dr Henderson said while the settlement would be paid for by the Medical Protection Society, he wanted to stand up for GPs' rights to speak out about patients who could compromise the health and safety of others.
"It would be moral cowardice ... it would be very wrong," he told NZ Doctor magazine.
The case is proceeding.
