A JUNIOR doctor has been cleared of telling a psychiatric patient that she could leave hospital if she had sex with him, after a tribunal ruled that the woman's evidence was "confused and inconsistent".
The fitness to practise panel said that Dr Mohammed Nazimul Hoque was a "person of good character", but stressed that the female patient - who was been treated at the Royal Cornhill Hospital at the time of the alleged incidents - "genuinely believes she has been the victim of a sexual assault".
Dr Hoque was a mature student who had qualified in medicine in Liverpool in 2014. He was completing a psychiatric rotation during the second year of his foundation training in January 2016 when he came into contact with the woman, known only as Patient A.
The woman has been admitted to the adult mental health ward of the Royal Cornhill Hospital on January 18 2016 after suffering a serious manic episode and was "plainly very unwell", the tribunal concluded.
The case was heard at the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) in Manchester, following a complaint about Dr Hoque to the General Medical Council (GMC).
In its determination, the MPTS said Patient A "believed that her family had held her hostage for three days" at the time of her admission.
She had not slept or eaten because she believed her family were lacing her food and drink with drugs.
It added: "It was noted that Patient A was thought disordered and manic in her presentation. Her symptoms included pressure of speech, flight of ideas, sexually disinhibited behaviour and grandiose delusions."
Read more: Doctor jailed for attacks is banned from returning to work
The tribunal said it had not proceeded "on the basis that Patient A should be considered inherently unreliable in her recollection of that time on the basis of her diagnosis".
However, allegations of sexually-motivated misconduct against Dr Hoque have been rejected.
Patient A had claimed that Dr Hoque had put his hands down her pyjama bottoms during an examination, offered to buy holidays that they could go on together, and told her she could leave the hospital if she had sex with him.
She also claimed he had asked "whether she swallowed", if she would have anal sex with him, told her to "get two naughty outfits", and said she "could have sex any time on the ward".
All these allegations were found not proved.
The Tribunal said Patient A's evidence "seemed, in large parts, confused and inconsistent" and that there were "a number of occasions where significant pieces of information had been added to her recollection".
Dr Hoque did admit that he had declined the offer of a nurse to chaperone Patient A during the consultation, which took place on January 19, and that he had failed to maintain adequate records from the ECG and physical examination.
Read more: Tribunal told doctor had sexual relationship with vulnerable patient
The MPTS concluded: "The Tribunal wishes to reiterate that it does not consider that Patient A gave evidence which she knew or believed to be false.
"In reaching the conclusion that her evidence lacks reliability, it accepted that Patient A genuinely believes she has been the victim of a sexual assault and that, to her credit, she has seen her participation in this process as being, in part, about protecting other patients...
"Having considered all the evidence, the tribunal was satisfied that Dr Hoque had given a credible account of the circumstances in which he turned down the offer of a chaperone...
"The Tribunal attached weight to to the fact that Dr Hoque is a person of good character. The Tribunal is satisfied that Dr Hoque's actions were not sexually motivated."
The MPTS ruled that Dr Hoques's fitness to practise is not impaired and he will face no sanctions.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here