Doctor must alert if returning here

A Romanian surgeon who had difficulty ordering tests for sick children and who it was alleged did not know how to scrub up properly for theatre has been ordered to notify the Medical Council if he ever returns to Ireland.

Dr Mihai Anton was found guilty on 10 counts of poor professional performance at a fitness-to-practise inquiry in October 2014 but did not turn up for his hearing and told the inquiry that he “had nothing to declare about my activities in Ireland” and would never return to the country.

In a decision confirmed by the High Court and published yesterday, the Medical Council has attached 11 separate conditions to Dr Anton’s registration, which will prevent him from working unsupervised for a period of two years, if he succeeds in gaining employment here again.

Dr Anton was hired after a telephone interview by Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital Crumlin, the inquiry heard. But shortly after his commencement as a junior doctor with the hospital in January 2013, a series of concerns were raised by colleagues.

Among the findings of poor professional performance against Dr Anton were that he was unable to take proper medical notes and was unable to order a kidney, electrolytes, and urea test for a child; he contaminated the sterile field during theatre when he touched the gown of a colleague; and that he obtained parental consent for the wrong type of hernia operation on a child.

The council also found him guilty of poor professional performance for bringing a young patient and their family in to a room in the day surgery unit that was deemed out of bounds as it posed an infection risk.

Dr Anton qualified as a consultant in Romania and his current whereabouts are not known.

One witness said he was the “worst” senior house officer she had ever worked with, and, on a scale of one to 10, he rated as a “zero”.