Neurologist who sent patient naked selfie can keep his job
A MARRIED neurologist who sent a patient a naked selfie video from his hospital email account after they embarked on an affair was told he could keep his job yesterday.
Dr Simon Shields, 47, sent the clip of himself lying ‘unclothed’ in bed, alongside the message: ‘Will you be having an early night? I took a vid to help you.. x.’
The consultant, who has worked on pioneering treatments for multiple sclerosis, had been treating the woman – referred to as Patient A – since 2005, and met her for consultations at Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital on 28 occasions.
But in February 2013, after Dr Shields found the woman’s email address, their messages soon became flirtatious and ‘within days’, Patient A, a writer in her late 30s, suggested they meet up. The tribunal heard that the relationship came to light when Dr Shields was investigated on unrelated matters and his hospital email account examined.
But, following a Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service hearing in Manchester, Dr Shields escaped being struck off the medical register after he admitted the ‘improper relationship’.
Instead he was handed a three-month suspension after the tribunal panel received a number of written testimonials calling him an ‘excellent’ doctor.
Tribunal chairman Surendra Kumar said: ‘Your conduct in engaging in a sexual relationship with a patient breached a fundamental tenet of the medical profession.’