The nurse worked at Wagga Wagga Base Hospital, where she was part of a team that cared for the patient. Photo: Michelle Kroll.
A former Wagga nurse has been banned from her practice for two years after a tribunal found she breached her professional standards by engaging in an “intimate” relationship with a mental health patient.
According to the published decision handed down by the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal last week, Dilnoor Kang was part of a team who cared for a 24-year-old man referred to as Patient A, who was admitted to Wagga Base Hospital’s mental health ward due to suicide ideation in 2021. Ms Kang was aged 31 at the time.
According to the agreed facts of the case, Ms Kang was seen interacting with the patient outside the hospital on several occasions over the next three years.
“On 13 May 2021, [Ms Kang] accompanied Patient A to ‘The Riddle Room’, which is an escape room in Canberra,” the decision stated.
“The practitioner agreed that this occurred and that she made the booking for this outing two days earlier, which was the day on which Patient A was discharged from the [hospital].
“In approximately September 2022, patient A was observed to exit the [Ms Kang’s] house and climb into the passenger seat of her car. The practitioner kissed patient A on the lips, in her car, before driving off.”
Ms Kang denied kissing the patient, but the pair were also seen together at the Sturt Mall carpark and entering the shopping mall together.
The tribunal found that the nurse and patient communicated with each other by mobile telephone calls, texts, and other electronic means on “many thousands” of occasions.
On 24 February 2023, a member of the public, who remains anonymous, contacted Ms Kang’s employer the Murrumbidgee Local Health District (MLHD) and alleged the nurse was in a relationship with Patient A.
The MLHD suspended her the following month and then launched an investigation, which resulted in the health bureaucracy suspending her employment in September 2023.
In January 2024, police attended Ms Kang’s house due to a domestic incident, where it is alleged the patient slapped her across the face. The officer said the nurse told him the patient was her boyfriend.
The case on Ms Kang’s professional conduct over a three-year period was referred to regulator the Health Care Complaints Commission, which took the matter to the tribunal, seeking an order to cancel the nurse’s registration.
At hearings, Ms Kang denied being in an intimate or sexual relationship with Patient A, describing him as a “very good friend”.
The tribunal found this to be false and misleading,
“We are satisfied that the nature and gravity of the practitioner’s professional misconduct was objectively serious,” the tribunal ruled.
“It occurred over several years. The risk of harm to a mental health patient in those circumstances is considerable … Patient A was not only a vulnerable patient but was also several years younger than the practitioner. In these circumstances, the power imbalance between the two parties is exacerbated.”
The tribunal disqualified her from being registered as a nurse for a two-year period starting from 31 October 2025.
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