Doctor unable to take patient’s pulse

THE High Court has confirmed a decision by the Medical Council to remove a doctor who could not take a pulse from the register to practise.

Last July a Medical Council fitness to practise inquiry found Romanian doctor Asia Ndaga guilty of poor professional performance.

It emerged during the inquiry that the doctor could not take a patient’s pulse while working at Letterkenny General Hospital in Donegal in 2010.

The inquiry heard that the Royal College of Physicians was responsible for the interview process that led to the doctor being placed in Letterkenny as a senior house officer for one year in July 2010 and was to work under the supervision of consultants.

Concerns were raised by staff in early August about Dr Ndaga’s competence.

On August 17 the doctor examined a patient suffering from severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and was unable to say how much oxygen was being administered. She failed to identify the medical devices that were being used and take the patient’s pulse. She also said the patient was suffering from rickets, when she ought to have known this was not the case.

A consultant who assessed Dr Ndaga when she examined the patient with COPD recommend that she stop working at the hospital immediately.