Medic’s ‘autistic traits’
GP accused of ‘rough sex’ remarks has communication problems, inquiry told
A DOCTOR accused of making comments about ‘rough sex’ to a female patient and demonstrating martial art moves has shown ‘autistic traits’, an inquiry heard.
The GP yesterday told a fitness-to-practise inquiry he was ‘truly sorry for the mistakes he made’ during a consultation on June 4, 2014.
On the second day of the Medical Council inquiry, the doctor told the hearing he did demonstrate defensive martial art moves to the woman and took the patient’s hand to show her how to block a punch to the head.
He admitted this was not clinically justified and that it was ‘silly’ and ‘meaningless’.
The panel also heard from psychiatrist Dr John Hillery, who carried out an assessment of the doctor prior to the hearing.
He stated the GP did not fall into the autism spectrum and did not seem to have any mental illness, but that he did show some autistic traits in the way he communicated with others.
These traits included embarking on monologues, interrupting people and not properly listening to people with whom he was having a conversation.
However, Dr Hillery also told the council that people with these traits can learn to communicate in an appropriate manner.
It was explained to the council that around 60% of people with autism are getting by as normal in the professional workplace.
The GP’s patient, who has a history of depression and self-harm, had told the hearing on Wednesday how she went to see him as she was experiencing mood swings and had recently struck her boyfriend in the face.
The patient was left feeling ‘sick’ after the GP allegedly said if a woman wanted to have rough sex with him he was afraid he would get carried away and hurt them due to his strength. She claims he then asked for her arm and squeezed it to demonstrate a move that he uses on women who want to have rough sex with him.
Yesterday, the GP yesterday told the hearing he was ‘truly sorry’ for any discomfort and upset he unintentionally caused the patient.
‘I hope I’ve learned my lesson on this one, and I’ll never do anything like it again,’ he said. ‘I made a very bad mistake on this occasion.’
The patient had also made the allegation that when the doctor was examining lesions behind her ears, he grabbed her shoulder, and later allowed his hand to linger on her upper back.
The doctor said he had ‘immense difficulty’ remembering the details of the examination but that it was ‘very unlikely’ he would have touched her outside of the examination area.
On Wednesday the council heard the doctor had suggested to the patient that she may have hypomania, and that he then went on to describe the sexual symptoms that can arise from the condition, such as a tendency to engage in promiscuous behaviour.
The GP yesterday said he described these symptoms to her as he did not want to embarrass her by asking if this was her experience. He admitted that he ‘could have handled it better’.
The GP, the complainant and the clinic cannot be named.
A current patient of the doctor spoke yesterday as a character witness, describing him as a ‘brilliant’ and ‘professional’ doctor.
She told the council: ‘Nothing is too big a problem. If there’s a way to fix it, he will.’
The woman said her husband and two young children are also patients of his, and that he is ‘very good’ with children.
The hearing’s chairman, Mary Duff, said the fitness-to-practise committee will publicly deliver its rulings at a later date. However, she said its recommendations will not be made public.
‘I hope I’ve learned my lesson on this’