Indian doctor found guilty of groping patients in UK

An Indian-origin doctor in the UK has been found guilty of “serious professional misconduct” for groping six of his woman patients, including a 16-year-old girl, a media report said.

The general medical council has found 46-year-old Dr Parag Bhatt guilty of fondling patients over a five-month period while working as a general physician in Rotherham, the Daily Mail reported.

In a disciplinary hearing in London, the council found Bhatt, who has been allowed to continue working as a GP, was sexually motivated and in all but one case had no clinical need to examine the assets of his patients, the report said.

The council concluded he was guilty of serious professional misconduct.

“We have found your actions to be sexually motivated in relation to four patients, and not clinically indicated and inappropriate in relation to five patients.”

“You failed to provide adequate explanations to all six of the patients in this case. Your conduct was a serious departure from the standards expected of a registered medical practitioner in a number of important areas.”

“Most seriously, your sexually motivated examinations were a gross abuse of your patients and the trust they placed in you,” the council said.

The disgraced practitioner, who was cleared by a jury following a criminal trial in 2009, attacked his patients between January and September 2007.

In one incident he placed both his hands on the breasts of his victim, shook them and then began breathing heavily, the hearing was told. In another he placed his hand inside the patient’s top and bra and lifted her right breast.

In some cases, he failed to explain why the examinations were necessary while in others he did not even seek their consent, heard the general medical council which concluded Dr Bhatt presented “a risk to patients”. The doctor denies any sexual motivation.