Doctor guilty of professional misconduct

A former consultant who admitted allowing a patient into his private quarters in a hospital, and later kissing her, was yesterday found guilty of two charges of professional misconduct and two charges of poor professional performance.

A fitness to practise inquiry found Tipperary consultant anaesthetist Dr Hossam Desoky guilty of two counts of professional misconduct for allowing Teri Chamberlain to enter his on-call residence room at South Tipperary General Hospital, and for kissing her as they both left the room.

The inquiry also found Dr Desoky guilty of poor professional performance for calling Ms Chamberlain on her mobile phone and for failing to keep adequate records of a chest examination he carried out on Ms Chamberlain when he was on duty at the hospital on Jul 13, 2010.

Six other allegations against the doctor were not upheld.

A report on the inquiry will go to a full meeting of the Medical Council which will decide on the sanction to be applied.

Dr Desoky, 47, who is from Egypt and married with four young children, had attended a two-day inquiry, but was not present when Dr Michael Ryan, the committee chairman, announced the inquiry’s decision.

Ms Chamberlain, who was present with a friend when the findings of the inquiry were announced yesterday, said afterwards that she felt let down by the hospital.

She has also left her home in Cahir to live in another part of the country.

Ms Chamberlain said she had been attending hospital all her life because of her medical history and felt she had to make a complaint against the doctor to the Medical Council to protect other people.

“I just don’t want this to happen to anyone else,” she said.

Ms Chamberlain, who was admitted to the hospital for a colonoscopy, claimed the doctor had offered to advise her on her smoking habit and led her to his residence that was on another floor of the hospital.

She claimed the doctor locked the door behind them, pulled her onto the bed, and pushed his face onto her chest. When she screamed, he unlocked the door.

The inquiry found that Dr Desoky, who has since returned to Egypt, allowed Ms Chamberlain to enter his quarters when he ought to have known that this was inappropriate and unnecessary.

It was satisfied, based on the evidence of an expert witness, that the doctor’s conduct fell seriously short of the standard of conduct expected of doctors.

However, the inquiry found that the allegation that the doctor locked the door when alone in the room with Ms Chamberlain was not proven beyond reasonable doubt.

It also found the allegation that Dr Desoky refused to let the patient leave the room and sexually assaulted her was not proven.

It stated that the charge that Dr Desoky called Ms Chamberlain on her mobile phone did amount to poor professional performance because, even if he did make the phonecall to follow up in respect of medication, this was a failure to meet the standard of competence reasonably expected of doctors.