A GP sent legal threats to a vicar who reported him to the medical watchdog after the doctor confessed to having sexual relations with a patient, a tribunal has found.

The Reverend James Macbeth was first told by the NSW doctor of the relationship during a conversation in December 2016.

Initially, Reverend Macbeth urged the doctor to “self-report as a mark of integrity and a clear sign of his determination to change his behaviour”, according to the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal.

But when he refused, the reverend excluded the GP from church activities and said he would lodge the report himself.