A PSYCHIATRIST who confessed to a seven-year affair with a vulnerable patient after she was found dead has been struck off.

Dr Andrew McBride started a sexual relationship with the woman while treating her for drug and alcohol abuse at the Rectory Centre in Oxford in 2003.

In a string of diary entries read out at a disciplinary tribunal, the woman described how she felt McBride was “using her for sex”.

The affair continued until her untimely death in December 2010 despite two Oxfordshire NHS investigations into the relationship.

McBride was able to persuade bosses he was the victim of unfounded allegations when his lover revealed details of the affair while under the influence of alcohol in 2004 and 2008.

But the psychiatrist finally owned up after his mistress, referred to as patient A, was found dead in her flat in 2010, the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service heard.

McBride is thought to be the last person to see her alive and confessed to the true nature of their relationship in the subsequent investigation.

He stopped treating her professionally at the start of 2005, but continued to prescribe large doses of the sedative diazepam right up until her death.

McBride was not present or represented at the Manchester hearing where a fitness to practise panel ordered he should be struck off.

Panel chairwoman Joy Hamilton said: “The panel considers that Dr McBride’s sexual misconduct seriously undermines public trust in the profession and was behaviour unbefitting a registered medical practitioner.

“Dr McBride has demonstrated no insight into the inappropriateness of this relationship.”

The panel also found McBride guilty of clinical errors relating to his treatment of another three patients between 2004 and 2011.