Each state has its own set of statutes and regulations on licensing doctors, accommodating patients who wish to file complaints, and releasing information about physicians who have been subject to discipline and legal action. On this page, we’re sharing the key findings regarding New Hampshire, which we will continue to update as the series progresses.
Key fact: Any sexual intercourse by a doctor with a patient, even so-called consensual relationships, is a felony under state law. Sexual penetration while providing therapy or medical care, or within a year after the doctor-patient relationship ends, is aggravated felonious sexual assault, the law states. Also, as of 2015, the statute of limitations for most board investigations is five years from the date of the alleged violation.
“We have confidential letters of concern, but we don’t have the authority to require that licensee to do anything as a result of that. We can’t order a licensee to do anything without taking public action.”
—Sarah Blodgett, executive director, New Hampshire Board of Medicine.
Dr. John B. Welch
Welch was working as a doctor at a state psychiatric hospital when he was accused of sexually assaulting a 21-year-old patient while she was on a sedative, then asking her to lie to investigators.
He was sentenced to six months in jail under a 1999 expansion of sexual assault laws that prohibit any sexual contact between doctors and patients.
The medical board had suspended him in 2001 as the criminal investigation was pending. In 2004, after his conviction for felonies involving sexual misconduct and his admission to sexual intercourse with a second patient, his license was permanently revoked. He died in 2010.
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