No punishment for consultant
was told.
TheGeneralMedicalCouncil (GMC) launched its own investigation with the tribunal held in private to decide if Dr Sattar’sbehaviourconstituted misconduct.
A redacted summary of the case reveals how Dr Sattar was involved in a row with another man in the hallway of a house on August 27, 2017.
In a statement to the GMC, Dr Sattar said: “I managed to get out of the headlock, but he hadholdofmyclotheswithhis right hand and was not letting go and so I punched him twice on the left side of his face.
“They were not heavy punchesandmyaimwasjustto shock him into letting me go.”
The tribunal concluded: “In light of these particular circumstances, the tribunal did not find that Dr Sattar’s conduct was dishonourable or disgraceful.”
The hearing was also told about a “heated argument” between Dr Sattar and a woman on August 24, 2017, in which she claimed he held a butter knife beneath her chin.
This allegation was found unproven after he insisted “he at no point brandished or wieldedtheknifethreateningly”andthatshefollowedhimto continue the argument.
“Thetribunaldidnotaccept that these were the actions of a person who just been threatened,” said the summary.
Tribunal members did, however,concludethatDrSattar’s failure to inform the GMC for four months about the assault charges was a breach of “professional obligations” and amounted to misconduct.
But they decided that “the ‘one-off nature’ of this misconduct,inthecontextofanotherwiselengthyandunblemished career”, did not impair his fitness to practise or warrant a formal warning.