Hospital hired doctor accused of sex offences against nursing staff

Published on Tuesday 4 August 2009 22:04

POLITICIANS have hit out at one of Scotland's leading health boards after it was revealed that hospital bosses knew a doctor had been accused of sexually harassing nursing assistants when they gave him a job at a major acute hospital.

Dr Waqar Azim, who has been banned from practising for 12 months by the General Medical Council, was appointed to a post as a gastroenterologist at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, while facing a disciplinary hearing in connection with accusations made against him while working at a hospital on Merseyside.

On Monday, he was suspended from practising at a hearing of the General Medical Council's fitness to practise panel.

The hearing was told that Dr Azim indecently touched nursing assistants at University Hospital in Aintree, Liverpool, and abused his position by making sexual remarks to the women.

The panel heard he touched three of the women's breasts and also checked the groin of one of them when she asked him about some lumps on her neck. Dr Azim committed the offences over a three-year period up to March 2008.

The panel, sitting in Manchester, found the incidents "inexcusable and distasteful", but ruled that Dr Azim did not pose a risk to patients.

Dr Azim denied the allegations, but his evidence was described as "evasive" and "unreliable" by the GMC panel, which rejected suggestions that the women had "colluded" before making the complaints.

A spokeswoman for NHS Grampian said yesterday that a "thorough risk assessment" had been made by the health authority before Dr Azim was appointed to his post at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.

But North-east MSPs said that many questions remained to be answered by the board about the decision to hire a doctor who was facing serious charges of sexual harassment.

Richard Baker, the North-east Labour MSP and his party's justice spokesman, said: "I am reluctant to say that this doctor should never have been recruited, but frankly NHS Grampian should have been more transparent about the whole issue.

"Questions remain to be answered about why it was felt appropriate by NHS Grampian that Dr Azim should be appointed."

He added: "I know that an individual case is involved here and that sometimes there are confidentiality issues, but I have concerns that the trade unions do not seem to have been consulted at all. It was a matter of public record that he was being taken to the GMC.

"And the issues for which he has now been disciplined are going to cause concern both to patients and staff."

Mary Scanlon, the Conservatives' health spokeswoman, said NHS Grampian had a responsibility to protect all their staff.

She added: "While I would not wish to criticise the competence of NHS Grampian, this situation does throw up some very awkward questions.

"The first would be whether the risk assessment examined the motivation of the doctor to work in the north-east of Scotland, or whether this motivation was as a result of fleeing publicity from his previous job."

Mike Rumbles, the Liberal Democrat MSP for West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine, said: "I am astonished that ARI hired this man knowing full well the accusations he faced."

A spokeswoman for NHS Grampian said: "Dr Azim is an employee of NHS Grampian. A thorough risk assessment was undertaken prior to engaging Dr Azim, and strict measures to manage any potential risk were put in place. Throughout his time in NHS Grampian he has adhered fully to these measures."

She added: "Having now been suspended by the GMC, we will consider matters further."