A doctor in the United Kingdom, Suhail Anjum, who abandoned a patient under general anaesthetic during surgery to engage in sexual activity with a nurse, has been judged by a medical tribunal as posing a “very low risk” of repeating such misconduct.
The Independent reported on Tuesday that Dr Suhail Anjum, a 44-year-old married father of three, was caught in a compromising situation with a nurse by a stunned colleague at Tameside Hospital in Greater Manchester.
The consultant anaesthetist had told colleagues he was taking a bathroom break, but instead went into another operating theatre at Ashton-under-Lyne – partly used for storage – where the incident happened with Nurse C on September 16, 2023.
The matter was reported to hospital management, and Anjum was dismissed in February 2024 after an internal probe.
Last week, he told a Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service disciplinary panel that he hoped to continue his career in the UK after relocating with his family to Pakistan, where he had been working as a doctor.
On Monday, the tribunal concluded that Dr Anjum “had put his own interests before those of the patient and his colleagues” and the encounter with Nurse C “had the potential to distract Dr Anjum… and he may not have been able to give his full attention to the patient’s care.”
Tribunal chairwoman Rebecca Miller noted that although the patient was not harmed, the behaviour was “significant enough to amount to misconduct that was serious”.
She said she was persuaded that Anjum was unlikely to repeat his actions and described the risk of recurrence as “very low”.
Miller added: “The tribunal considered that members of the public and the profession would understand the high level of scrutiny to which Dr Anjum had been subjected, and that a finding of serious misconduct would weigh heavily upon him.
“The tribunal was satisfied that this public finding of serious misconduct was sufficient to maintain public confidence in the profession and proper professional standards, and that there was not a necessity to make a finding of impaired fitness to practise for that purpose.”
The doctor will not face any sanctions, though the hearing is set to continue in Manchester on Tuesday to decide whether a formal warning should be added to his record.