To think this proves we’re seriously short on doctors if this man is still allowed to practice?

[ThatTipsyMaker]

Just read about Dr Suhail Anjum who apparently left in the middle of an operation to go and have sex with a nurse in another room. He’s been told he can continue practising medicine in the UK.

Sorry, what?

We’ve been told there’s a shortage of doctors but if this level of conduct doesn’t disqualify you, then what does? What message does this send to patients, to other staff, to the public? Imagine being the person on the table mid-procedure when he decided he had more urgent “business” elsewhere.

AIBU to think we’re scraping the bottom of the barrel here and it’s actually quite scary?

It's absolutely grim

"Decision on impairment
Not impaired

Outcome
Warning

Type of case
Misconduct"

www.mpts-uk.org/hearings-and-decisions/tribunal-hearings-and-decisions/mr-suhail-anjum--sep-25

I don't disagree that his behaviour was poor, there's no question.

The GMC did find him guilty of serious misconduct, but they are bound by strict laws/criteria to rule as impaired judgement, and perhaps most crucially they are only allowed to consider whether his impairment is currently impaired, rather than if it was at the time, and he put together a comprehensive case of mitigating circumstances and efforts for remediation since that probably put the counsel in a bit of a corner.

I obviously have no idea if those factors are true or not, or whether he just had enough money to hire a very clued in lawyer who played the game right. But if you read the GMC tribunal minutes it's not that they've let him off, he just presented a case that meant it would be challenging to prove likelihood of reoccurrence 🤷🏼‍♀️

Given the high profile nature of this I'd be amazed if any UK trusts hired him back, it would be terrible PR.

I think that's a bit overboard, he has the clinical knowledge and skills and had no malicious inten, no one came to harm
He was the anaesthetist, not the surgeon, and although culture is changing it is not uncommon for anaesthetists to nip out mid procedure with some cover.

Clearly it was very foolish but he's paid for that with his dismissal.

I don’t think it’s unusual or due to a shortage. it’s always been the case that doctors who have done something wrong often don’t get struck off.

That's true, as long as there is remorse and remediation. There are doctors who have been convicted of drunk driving etc still practicing.

Anaesthetists keep people alive during operations.

I am well aware.

It's a bit like being a pilot though in that most of the work is the take off and landing. In the middle, whilst one should be poised to react, it's generally more a case of monitoring the instruments. He left someone monitoring who could escalate if required.

Will the patients he deals with in the future be made aware of his past?

I would consider that to be pretty crucial to the isssue of informed consent.

Nothing to do with a shortage and everything to do with the GMC and doctors sticking together no matter what.

Disgusting behaviour they should have both been struck off. A comfort break means popping to the loo and scrubbing back in.

This is true. When I did my degree I had to read this about this doctor, who I understand kept his job, as a psychiatrist, working with the extremely vulnerable: https://www.bsab.org/download/downloads/id/45/executive_summary_for_serious_case_review_a3.pdf

(TL;DR - psychiatrist in a relationship with a much younger sex worker and drug addict, accessing medical records on multiple occasions, allegations of domestic abuse and then later, she is found dead with a plastic bag on her head and hands 'loosely tied' behind her back, recorded as suicide).