Paramedic suspended over inappropriate relationship with patient in rural Manitoba

A southern Manitoba paramedic has had his licence revoked for entering a sexual relationship with a patient who had a history of mental health issues.

Kirk Seniuk has been barred from practising paramedicine for at least 18 months after pleading guilty to pursuing the relationship from 2022 to 2023, the College of Paramedics of Manitoba's (CPM) inquiry committee panel said in a decision published last month.

The patient — who died in 2023 — started contacting Seniuk over Facebook in early 2022. According to the decision, both sent messages to each other "on and off" over the next 13 months, and eventually exchanged nude photographs and sexually explicit messages.

Seniuk denied he had sex with the patient, but the college says they met four times while he was off duty and that the man admitted there were a couple instances of "intimate touching."

The patient complained to the college in late 2022, but its decision says she never replied to their attempts to contact her, and that she died about two months after the college advised her she could re-open the complaint at any time.

Seniuk was fired around June 2023 after an internal investigation, and has not worked as a paramedic since.

The college says Seniuk had first-hand knowledge when he embarked on the relationship that the woman was in "a particularly vulnerable state," having a history of mental health issues and substance abuse,, .

"There are inherent power imbalances in the provision of health care, and in the vast majority of cases those dynamics favour the health-care provider," the decision says, citing the opinion of a medical ethics expert retained to weigh in on Seniuk's conduct.

"The power differentials are extremely difficult to navigate in a personal relationship between a health-care provider and a patient; most health-care regulators warn of these dangers and discourage such relationships."

Seniuk had responded to seven of the patient's emergency calls before they started messaging each other on Facebook, and saw her four other times in his professional role after the relationship began, according to the decision.

The decision says in one of those later instances, the paramedic did not take his EMS equipment with him, and did not complete a patient care report.

The panel points out he also deleted the Facebook messages with the patient once the investigation began, and tried to mislead the college, admitting to the physical interactions with her after initially denying them.

However, it also says the man had received no previous complaints in his 20 years of service in central and southern Manitoba, and that the difficulties he'll find getting a job as a paramedic if he's ever reinstated are also a mitigating factor.

"The rural setting in which the misconduct occurred does not constitute a licence to cross the ethical boundaries which all paramedics must observe," the panel said.