Suspension of love pest GP is extended
ARUNCORN doctor who inundated a patient with romantic advances after looking up her personal details on the medical database had has his suspension extended.
Dr Chizoba Christopher Uzoh sent text messages and flowers to the woman and one occasion sent a text deemed to be sexual in intent while working at Murdishaw Health Centre.
The Medical Practitioners Tribual Service (MPTS) suspended Dr Uzoh last year after it found that Dr Uzoh had accessed the patient’s medical records and details including address between March 22 and May 5, 2016.
A misconduct review hearing took place in his absence and corresponded via email as Dr Uzoh has moved to Canada.
Texts considered by the panel revealed that he even used his move to to Canada to try to woo his patient, saying his had a ‘job with huge earning potential waiting for him in Toronto’ before boasting that he was top of the class in medical school.
Other messages showed that the patient had told him she had felt ‘scared a little’ by him looking up her address without permission and making contact, but he fol- lowed up later with another text in which he described himself as a ‘good looking guy’.
He sent flowers and a card and continued to contact the woman after she asked him to stop, the tribunal said.
Inside the card, Dr Uzoh had written that his ‘heart is pure’ and he hoped ‘it would be possible to make you mine someday’.
He told the MPTS that he had not meant to be ‘creepy’.
The panel ruled that the phrase ‘special wants you’ in one of his messages showed sexual intent and found that his broader conduct towards the patient were ‘sexually motivated’.
The review found that the suspension should continue for another 12 months with a review hearing to take place at the end.
Dr Uzoh said his intention had not been to ‘ not to prey on the patient or the patient’s vulnerability’ and claimed his intent in contacting her was ‘noble’.
He made additional claims that he had checked her records to ‘partly to check the outcome of the investigations I had requested as part of my education’ and ‘partly to get her contact details’.
At his suspension last year, the MPTS decided that it would be ‘disproportionate’ to strike him off the medical register.
In one of his longer texts, Dr Uzoh bragged about his career.
He said: “How is it possible that a good-looking guy who is a doctor, who has a job with huge earning potential waiting for him in Toronto, who was the best graduating medical doctor in his medical school, who started out as a urological surgeon with several well-cited scientific publications before he decided to be a GP for personal reasons, who thinks you beautiful and special wants you and you wouldn’t give him a chance?”
In another he said: “Hi I am sorry for this text message but I saw you and I liked you and thought may be we could go on a date in the future when I no longer work at Murdishaw Health Centre if you feel the same.’
In Dr Uzoh’s written representation he said: “I have always been professional toward my patients and never had any issues with NHS England or the GMC (General Medical Council). I regret my actions and I apologise for all the stress this may have caused the patient.”
In its decision notice, the MPTS said: “Though Dr Uzoh’s behaviour was both wrong and persistent, it is by no means at the higher end of sexually motivated misconduct.
“In the tribunal’s judgement, Dr Uzoh’s conduct, though serious, fell short of being fundamentally incompatible with being a doctor.
“The tribunal concluded that a period of suspension would adequately protect the public.”