Doctor accused of professional misconduct

A CORK-BASED doctor has appeared before the Irish Medical Council over his treatment of a patient with a history of cardiac problems who collapsed at home two years ago.

Dr Saleem Sharif, who runs his own practice in Ballyphehane, is accused by the patient, Barry Murphy, and other members of his family, of refusing to help to lift him and insisting on seeing the patient’s medical card while he was lying on the ground before treating him.

A hearing of the IMC’s Fitness to Practise Committee is investigating eight counts of alleged professional misconduct and/or poor professional performance against Dr Sharif. The 52-year-old, who was working on call for SouthDoc when he called to the home of Barry Murphy at Peacock Row, North Monastery Road, Cork, on May 17, 2009, denies the charges.

They include allegations that he had behaved in a rude and derogatory manner to Mr Murphy and his wife and that he had failed to meet an adequate standard of clinical competence.

Mr Murphy, a former plasterer, gave evidence that Dr Sharif had not carried out any preliminary examination of him while he was lying on the floor of the bathroom where he had collapsed. However, Dr Sharif insists he found the patient sitting on the bathroom’s toilet seat and that he attempted to measure his blood pressure and pulse.

The IMC heard that Dr Sharif was unable to lift Mr Murphy because he was recovering from recent surgery on his back.

The patient’s wife, Josephine Murphy, and the couple’s son, Timothy, also insisted that Dr Sharif had refused to carry out an examination of Mr Murphy in the bathroom.

Ms Murphy said Dr Sharif had advised her to give her husband some 7-Up and to get him to rest in bed. She could not recall that the doctor had told her that her husband was seriously dehydrated and would need hospitalisation.

Ms Murphy admitted she had not realised that Dr Sharif had gone outside to his car to phone for an ambulance to bring her husband to hospital because he had never told her.

The IMC heard that Mr Murphy made a full recovery after subsequently being transferred to the Mercy Hospital and onward to Cork University Hospital, where he was fitted with an emergency pacemaker.

Medical expert Professor Colm Bradley gave evidence that some of Dr Sharif’s actions based on the Murphys’ account of events would constitute poor professional performance.

In evidence, Dr Sharif of Eagle View, Wilton, Cork, stressed that he had communicated to the best of his ability to the Murphy family.