Consultant suspended after slapping patient

A consultant has been suspended for slapping a female patient in the face as she recovered from surgery.

Dr Sarath Avula hit the “vulnerable” patient, who was recovering from surgery, after she started “thrashing and shouting” wanting to leave, a tribunal heard.

The consultant, who worked as a locum consultant at the Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle, Cumbria, “slapped” the patient after a nurse and junior had been “unable to resolve the situation”, a disciplinary panel was told.

The woman called the police, and Avula was subsequently convicted of assault by beating having pleaded not guilty, the tribunal heard.