Doctor held over ‘sex assaults on child patients’

As police look at hundreds of potential cases...

POLICE are reviewing hundreds of patient records across two hospitals after a doctor was arrested on suspicion of child sexual assault.

Detectives have so far identified at least nine potential child victims amid more than 109 cases of concern.

Their inquiry spans a fouryear period at the Royal Stoke University Hospital and Russells Hall Hospital in Dudley, West Midlands.

The doctor is known to have treated more than 800 patients at the Russells Hall Hospital alone. More than 350 of those were children.

The 34-year-old was first investigated in 2018 after concerns were raised by the parents of a vulnerable female over his examination of her.

He was suspended from seeing patients at the Royal Stoke.

An inquiry then identified concerns about the doctor that included other patients.

Managers at the University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust (UHNM) called in Staffordshire Police and alerted the General Medical Council. It is understood two complaints at the Stoke hospital relate to the examination of two girls aged seven and 15.

The doctor was allowed back to work around 12 months later when police decided there was a lack of evidence to take matters further – a decision that has now prompted the force to refer itself to the police watchdog after concerns about the doctor’s conduct at the second hospital were raised.

The later allegations relate to patients seen at Russells Hall Hospital after he finished his two years of training and moved to the Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust in August 2020.

He was excluded from the trust last March following a complaint and in October the General Medical Council suspended him. The doctor was arrested in December.

The Sunday Times reported that the doctor, who has been released on bail as investigations continue, worked in accident and emergency departments at both hospitals, and in obstetrics and gynaecology at Dudley.

A representative told the newspaper that the doctor rejected any allegations that he had committed a criminal act and was co-operating with the investigations. Staffordshire Police have set up a secure online portal for what they describe as a ‘major incident’. Parents of potential victims will be sent letters about how to make contact with the investigation, called Operation Anzu. Both hospital trusts have set up helplines for patients.

Operation Anzu is initially reviewing the clinical records of children seen by the doctor but the hospitals will then consider the records of patients aged 18 to 25.

Staffordshire Police confirmed the man’s arrest and his release on bail.

The Dudley and UHNM trusts said they were working with police and could not make any further comment.

‘A major incident’