Doctor stricken from medical register to challenge decision

A Sudanese doctor found guilty of professional misconduct after he told a patient to make her daughter ‘a gift to him’ has told the High Court it was a misunderstanding.

A Sudanese doctor found guilty of professional misconduct after he told a patient to make her daughter "a gift to him" has told the High Court today that it was a misunderstanding.

Dr Eltayeb Elkhabir was investigated by an Irish Medical Council's fitness to practice committee, which was told he was overheard making inappropriate comments while working as a junior doctor at Midlands Regional Hospital in Portlaoise in January 2011.

He says the matter is a misunderstanding arising from cultural and religious differences.

In a separate incident in February 2011, he took an hour and 15 minutes to attend to a 47-year-old woman with chest pains, who had recently suffered a heart attack.

He is to be given an opportunity to challenge a decision to strike him off the register at a Medical Council hearing in March.