BELFAST – A local gynecologist has agreed to stop bad-mouthing a fellow obstetrician and poaching her patients.

Dr. August Schwenk, who shared an office in the Cobb Medical Building at Waldo County General Hospital with Dr. Eleanor B. Handler, agreed to the settlement Thursday after Handler pressed the issue in court.

Schwenk’s attorney, Philip Buckley, reached the agreement moments before Handler’s request for a temporary restraining order against Schwenk was to be heard by Justice John Atwood in Knox County Superior Court, according to papers filed with the case. Buckley could not be reached for comment on the agreement.

Under terms of the settlement, Schwenk has agreed to refrain from disparaging Handler and making comments concerning her competence or qualifications as a physician, to not interfere with her patients or any patients referred to her by other physicians, to ensure that she receives her mail and telephone messages, to provide all charts and medical records kept at the office, to not interfere with her removing her computer, software and supplies from the office, and to forward all mail and calls to her new office.

Handler sought the restraining order after attempting for months to iron out her differences with Schwenk privately, according to documents filed with the case.

According to the complaint, Handler entered into an office-sharing agreement with Schwenk when she moved her practice from New York to Maine in 1997.

In return for a monthly rent of $6,500, Schwenk agreed to provide Handler with the “full support of the office including but not limited to, the use of all office staff, paid nurses to serve patients, all billing, bookkeeping, insurance claims processing and scheduling services.”

The agreement also gave Handler access to the consulting or examination room for emergency visits and for regular weekly appointments at a specific schedule of hours. She also purchased a computer that both she and Schwenk used and paid for half of all supplies purchased by the office.

According to the suit, Handler and Schwenk’s agreement was strictly a sharing of office space and costs and at no time had they practiced medicine as partners.

The agreement apparently worked fine for both parties until Handler was forced to take a leave of absence last April to tend to her husband who was ill with cancer. When she returned to the office last August, she found it difficult to schedule patients and learned that the staff was informing patients that she was unavailable.

Handler’s attorney, Judy Metcalf, informed the court that Schwenk breached the agreement by denying her client access to the examination room, instructing the staff not to render services to her patients, and by failing to process medical insurance claims.

Metcalf noted that both doctors are members of the WCGH staff and are bound by the hospital’s procedures and bylaws. Those procedures include an obligation not to interfere with existing doctor-patient relationships and not to disparage the reputation of any staff physician.

Handler charged Schwenk with “fraud” by taking as his own referrals made to her from other physicians. In one case, Handler said, Schwenk called one of her referrals directly to offer his services. This confused the patient greatly, she claimed, because she had been under the impression that her doctor specifically referred her to Handler.

She charged that Schwenk “through his own words and conduct and through his agents has misled patients” by telling them that she would not assist the patient, by stating that she was unavailable to assist patients, and by claiming that the two were partners who serve the same patients.

Not only were the statements untrue, Handler charged, they damaged her reputation in the community and could have a “resounding and abiding impact” on her practice if allowed to continue.