Doctor suspended for touching nursing assistants

4 August, 2009

The General Medical Council has suspended a doctor for 12 months after he touched the breasts of nursing assistants at a hospital in Liverpool.

The GMC panel also found that gastroenterologist Dr Waqar Azim had abused his position by making sexual remarks to the women. The panel called the incidents ‘inexcusable and distasteful’.

The complaints led Dr Azim to leave the University Hospital in Aintree for the Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, where bosses approved him after a risk assessment.

Evidence was heard from five nursing assistants who worked with Dr Azim between 2005 and 2008, when he acted indecently towards them, actions which the panel ruled were an ‘inexplicable aberration’ in an otherwise unblemished 25-year career.

One accusation involved Dr Azim approaching a nursing assistant from behind while they were alone together and brushing his hand over her breast while lifting her fob watch.

Dr Azim denied the allegations, but the panel said his evidence was sometimes ‘unreliable’ and ‘evasive’.

A spokesman for Aintree University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said: ‘We note the decision of the General Medical Council. The five staff who raised this issue were described by the GMC as giving evidence which was “believable, cogent and consistent”. We believe that this ruling sends a strong message that such behaviour will not be tolerated.

‘A disciplinary process was previously started by the trust in relation to these allegations. Dr Azim resigned from his post with the trust during that process, and is no longer employed by us,’ he added.

Readers' comments (13)

Anonymous | 4-Aug-2009 1:36 pm
This is absolutely disgusting. He should have been struck off. Instead he is going to make more NA's lives miserable in another hospital.
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Anonymous | 4-Aug-2009 3:12 pm
I wholeheartedly agree with the previous comment. This man has been proven guilty. How many more colleagues have to suffer or need to come forward for it to stop permanently. He has been given a 'slap on the wrist' - probably on full pay. 5 people saying the same thing is a lot, and they were/are very brave - well done to them. At the very least, any area he goes to should be pre-warned of his history. If it was one of the complainees who were the culprit do you think they would still have a job? I think not. Another case of status discrimination.
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donna colwell | 4-Aug-2009 8:21 pm
Suspended. Only a Doctor could get away with this type of behaviour.

Just what does a doctor have to do, to suffer any real consequence?

Not so long ago a doctor in Birmingham was involved in a drunken attack on an off duty paramedic, the paramedic was lucky to escape with his life.

Do we really want or need people like this in the profession at all?

I know it's a bit of a bind ladies and gentlemen but if you want to work in such professions as ours. You have to behave yourself. The public have to be able to expect decent behaviour from us on and off duty.

Are we to wait for this professional doctor to start moving in on the female patients when his suspension is over?

If he behaved like this in the street he would end up with a criminal record at least.
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Anonymous | 4-Aug-2009 8:33 pm
What a strange universe the NHS inhabits.
If this 'behaviour' (polite term for sexual assault) were exhibited in a job where being male and a doctor didn't automatically afford you status - say a nursing auxiliary, Mr Azim (can't bring myself to call him 'Dr') would not only be out of a job but possibly prosecuted and on a register (CRB at the very least?).
I only hope that the 'behaviour' wasn't experienced by female patients who haven't been able to complain.
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Anonymous | 6-Aug-2009 5:22 pm
I agree with all the above comments. He should definately have been struck off. As for the risk assessment, i would love to see a copy of that. As a nurse, if I or any of my colleagues had acted in such a way, we would very likely have been struck off the register.
I'm a fairly strong person but I found it difficult raising concerns around a senior member of staff regarding myself being harassed by them. The result? He had a talking to and after i enquired why I'd still been on the same shifts as him after I was told this would not happen i was agressively informed that as he had been spoken to, the matter was over with. It is infuriating. I felt I was made to feel like i was being a silly little girl, even though I'd previously worked in a forensic service and didn't feel harassed there!!!
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Anonymous | 6-Aug-2009 11:18 pm
I'm a male nurse and I'm pretty damned certain that I would have had a significantly greater penalty to pay than a 12 month suspension had I touched the breasts of five feamle doctors over a period of five years! There may well be a shortage of doctors but that should not mean that criminal offences are tolerated; this man should have been struck off and charged with sexual assault.
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Anonymous | 7-Aug-2009 7:15 am
Folks, I am afraid to say, that the Culture of Medics looking after Medics remains!

I know of two cases where a local male GP in Coventry, sexually assaulted a female patient in times of her Mental Distress at times of extreme vulnerability and was brought up in front of the GMC - Had his wrists slapped and told 'you are naughty and be suspended for 2 years'. Not put on the Sex Offenders register.

The second case is a Consultant at University Hospitals Coventry who was caught having been looking at Pornographic Websites, including Child Pornograpy and was also 'slapped on the wrist by the GMC' and told not to do it again, was not disciplined by the Trust and has been allowed to carry on working without being reported to the Police and put on the Sex Offenders Register! He is still working at the Trust - SHAMEFULL.

What is it with Medics looking after Medics - the NMC would have us all struck off, reported to the Police and be on the Sex Offenders Register.

One rule for one profession and one rule for another. The GMC is a Joke! Old boys sticking together and looking after each other.

The NHS does not care anymore, and the Government have not got a clue - I am also a Male registered with the NMC and I am damn sure, that I had have done these hideous deeds, I would have been struck off, put in prison, lost my job for Gross Misconduct and put on the Sex Offenders register - they should all be exposed and Andy Burnham should sort this out with immediate effect, lets not worry about statistics, lets get the priorities right and have a workforce that maintain their code's of conduct and get rid of those who dont - we cant do that though as we would be short of staff! Lets keep putting the public at risk and are we not already short of staff. It could be short with safe staff though and not putting the public at risk.
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Yvonne Bates | 7-Aug-2009 7:28 am
I doubt very very much if this Doctor has had a 25 year unblemished career. I would tend to believe he has just not been caught or reported previously. Knowing the way the system is with investigating such claims, and how stressful it is, (as a comment on here already states) I would say there were others who just did not come forward. Maybe this will now bring other staff out who have had dealings with this Doctor. Im sure there are some out there. A 12 month suspension is an absolute insult to the poor staff who have braved the wraths of lodging the complaints. Can they not appeal his measly sentance? Not fit to practice!! I would like to know what he is legally allowed to do in the 12 months suspension, and how long does the sexual assault of staff stay on his records for following this case??? And will the staff who work with this man after his years suspension know his history? No I dont think so, so the chances are if he does it again, whoever it happens to will be too intimidated in reporting it so it goes on. Sexual Assualt seems to have been tolerated by the Board in this case?? It is a Criminal Offence !
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Lynda Sullivan | 7-Aug-2009 9:55 am
Oh how right the male nurse above is when he says he would be hung, drawn, and quartered if he had touched up 5 female doctors. But also how true that people like this probably did it before they were caught and will do it again if not punished appropriately. Double standards. When will somebody stand up and be counted in positions of authority and do the right thing for once. Hard I know but respected for it? You bet!
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Anonymous | 13-Aug-2009 2:15 am
I'm a male nurse and through training and working the amount of times female staff have "inadvertently" brushed past, reached for something or made suggestive comments never stops. The Dr's behavior whilst repugnant is perpetrated by each sex at differing degrees by different health professions.
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Anonymous | 22-May-2010 11:52 am
brilliant he gets away with it and probably gets a 12 month holiday with full pay! if nurses had done that they would have been looking for another career!
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Anonymous | 22-May-2010 12:14 pm
Life will never be 100 per cent fair folks. May be Doctors are less likely to commit such offences? Statistics don't lie. A posh boy/girl is less likely to be in trouble with the law etc... So this has to be taken into consideration when dealing with them. Just look at our criminal justice system.
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Anonymous | 22-May-2010 12:41 pm
There's a fine line between workplace innuendo and sexual assault. That line is not a concrete rule as each person has different tolerances to behaviour. I am in no way saying what he did was right, he should have been struck off in my opinion, but I am sure this is not an isolated case. It happens every day at my work with people making comments to each other and banter. It's human nature. I have little doubt that if this had happened to anyone else other than a doctor then the punishment would be far worse. What does a doctor have to do to get in serious trouble????
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