POULSBO — Dr. Narinder Duggal, the Poulsbo physician accused more than five years ago of malpractice and sexual harassment by eight former patients, will have his medical license conditionally reinstated by the state Department of Health.

Among the conditions: Duggal is prohibited from treating female patients.

Kitsap News Group tried unsuccessfully to contact Duggal at two phone numbers on file. But in a July 19 impact statement to the state Department of Health, Duggal wrote that the financial costs of defending himself, as well as “the insult, ridicule, disavowed career and shame” have beeh punishment enough.

“I have failed and the whole world has seen it,” he wrote. “I failed my patients, my passion, my children, my parents, and I failed myself. The sanction is complete …”

An investigation by the state Medical Quality Assurance Commission determined that Duggal, while owner of the now-defunct Liberty Bay Internal Medicine on Bond Road and Highway 305, had overprescribed medication to several patients and made sexual advances toward one, and in January 2014 Duggal signed an agreement to voluntarily surrender his license. Before the commission accepted the surrender, however, Duggal asked that the agreement be withdrawn and requested a hearing so he could respond to the commission’s findings. The commission denied Duggal’s request, but on Nov. 22, 2016, a state Appeals Court judge ruled Duggal was entitled to the hearing.

The hearing took place in May; the conditional license reinstatement is a result of the hearing.

Meanwhile, three former patients sued Duggal in Superior Court. One case was dismissed when the plaintiff, who was representing herself, told the judge she was not ready to go to trial. A second case was dismissed just days before trial was scheduled to begin; one of Duggal’s lawyers said both sides had agreed to drop the case, but that there was no settlement. In the third case, the Superior Court determined Duggal was not negligent in his care; the former patient in that case is appealing.

The former patient felt vindicated by the latest decision by the board.

“Many people have formed opinions about who is to blame,” the former patient emailed to Kitsap News Group. “I’ve read posts where people actually were blaming some of the female patients, one of whom was sexually assaulted. The fact that after a week-long trial, the panel of doctors took away Dr. Duggal’s right to ever treat female patients again should speak volumes.”

Duggal will be required to:

Complete various clinical skills and multi-disciplinary evaluations;

Take courses on appropriate boundaries and record keeping;

Submit quarterly reports regarding his general overall clinical performance; and

Pay a fine of $10,000 to the commission within five years of his reinstatement.

Duggal will be prohibited from:

Treating female patients;

Treating patients for addiction and from prescribing Suboxone for pain management;

Practicing as a pain management specialist;

Having social contact with patients;

Treating individuals, or family members of individuals, with whom he has had social contact;

Accepting, tendering, or exchanging gifts or money with patients;

Disclosing personal information about himself to patients, other than his professional qualifications; and

Using any electronic or paper format to communicate with patients other than for legitimate clinical purposes.

Duggal’s license will also be placed on probation for a period of five years.

— Nick Twietmeyer is a reporter for Kitsap News Group. Contact him at ntwietmeyer@soundpublishing.com.