Sunday, September 24, 2017

Married Pakistani A&E doctor, 35, who groped a patient's breasts when she complained of chest pains before saying they'd be 'friends forever' faces deportation after being struck off

  • Dr Syed Bukhari, 35, moved from Pakistan to work for the NHS in Lanarkshire 
  • Bukhari groped a patient's breasts twice in two days at the Scottish hospital
  • The married doctor was cleared after a trial in 2015 but he has been struck off
Dr Syed Bukhari (pictured) has now been struck off after he repeatedly groped a patient's breasts 
Dr Syed Bukhari (pictured) has now been struck off after he repeatedly groped a patient's breasts 
A married doctor who repeatedly groped a patient's breasts after she complained of chest pains has been struck off.
Dr Syed Bukhari, 35, moved from Pakistan to work for the NHS and molested the 28-year-old woman twice in two days. 
The woman was being treated for palpitations and told him she was suffering from chest pains when he 'targeted' her at work.  
She was left embarrassed and distressed by the incidents at Wishaw General Hospital in Lanarkshire, Scotland.    
Bukhari also gave her his email address and told her: 'We'll be friends for ever.' 
But the patient said: 'I felt very uncomfortable and nervous. I was quite tearful and upset. You put your trust in a doctor.'
Bukhari, who arrived in Britain with his college student wife in 2010, was reported to police but he was cleared of two charges of sexual assault following a trial at Hamilton Sheriff Court in 2015.
However, he was ordered to face a disciplinary tribunal by the General Medical Council.
The Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) in Manchester found him guilty of the charges in June and at a further hearing this week he was struck off the medical register.
The hearing was told the loss of his medical career would mean he could be deported to his native Pakistan by the Home Office.
The incidents occurred in July 2013 when the woman, known as Patient A, had been admitted to the casualty department.
She was in bed wearing pyjamas when Bukhari - who had been a doctor at the hospital for 14 months - closed the curtains around her to examine her.
Patient A said: 'Dr Bukhari asked me to sit back then proceeded to lift up my pyjama top exposing my breasts.
'He then moved his hands from the centre of my chest and proceeded to cup both my breasts with his hands and moved his hands in a circular motion.

'It felt as though Dr Bukhari was massaging them. 

He then pulled the blanket back, which had been covering my bottom half, and placed his hands on my shins and underneath my calves and asked me whether it was sore here.

'I informed him that there was no pain in my legs. He moved both his hands up my legs again, asking whether there was any pain.

'Dr Bukhari moved his hands to the top of my thighs, inside my pyjama shorts.' She said he visited her again the same day and gave her his email address so that she 'could keep in contact with him'.

She added: 'I was shocked by this as I have never been given an email address by a doctor before.'

The woman, who has not been named, was left embarrassed and distressed by the incidents at Wishaw General Hospital in Lanarkshire, Scotland 

The next day the woman was waiting to see a heart specialist when Bukhari arrived at her bedfrom side, asked her why she had not been discharged and closed the curtain around her bed again.

She said he 'massaged' her neck, 'examined' her breasts and pressed her legs, again cupped her breasts and asked for her email, saying: 'We'll be friends for ever.'

Following the allegation Bukhari, of Inverness, was suspended but later got a job with NHS Highland after wrongly saying the allegations had been resolved.

At the hearing, he denied wrongdoing and said that in Pakistan it was common for doctors to give email addresses to patients.

He claimed he felt no sexual attraction towards the woman but he was found guilty of groping her and charges that he misled colleagues at NHS Highland about the nature of the claims made against him.

MPTS panel chairman Paul Curtis said striking Bukhari off the medical register was the only appropriate sanction for his offences.

He said: 'Following the first incident of inappropriate touching you then sought Patient A out the following day, aware that she had not made any complaint about your behaviour the previous day which made her more vulnerable. 

'This displays predatory behaviour on your part and considerably increases the seriousness of your actions.

'Given the significant aggravating factors in this case, the tribunal concluded that your conduct and behaviour is fundamentally incompatible with you remaining on the register.'

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