A doctor who left a patient midway through an operation to have sex with a nurse is at “very low risk” of repeating his serious misconduct, a medical tribunal has ruled.
Dr Suhail Anjum, 44, and the unnamed nurse were caught in a “compromising position” by a colleague who walked in on the pair at Tameside hospital. The consultant anaesthetist had asked another nursing colleague to monitor the male patient, who was under general anaesthetic, so he could go to the bathroom.
Instead, Anjum, a married father of three, went to another operating theatre at the hospital in Ashton-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester, where sexual activity took place with Nurse C on 16 September 2023.
A Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) hearing was told another nurse at the hospital described seeing Nurse C “with her trousers around her knee area with her underwear on display” and that Dr Anjum was “tying up the cord of his trousers”.
Anjum was absent from the operating room for eight minutes and the patient came to no harm.
The matter was reported to management and Anjum was dismissed in February 2024 following an internal investigation. Last week he told an MPTS disciplinary tribunal he wanted to resume his career in the UK and relocate with his family after they had since moved to his native Pakistan where he worked as a doctor.
Anjum promised there would never be a repeat of a “one-off error of judgment”. Giving evidence, he said: “It was quite shameful, to say the least. I only have myself to blame. I let down everybody, not just my patient and myself but the trust and how it would look.
“I let down my colleagues who gave me a lot of respect.”
On Monday, the tribunal determined that Anjum “had put his own interests before those of the patient and his colleagues” and the incident involving Nurse C “had the potential to distract Dr Anjum … and he may not have been able to give his full attention to the patient’s care”.
The tribunal chair, Rebecca Miller, said his actions, while they did not harm the patient’s safety, were “significant enough to amount to misconduct that was serious”.
However, she was satisfied that Anjum was determined not to repeat his past misconduct and considered the risk of repetition to be “very low”.
No sanction will be imposed on the doctor and the hearing will reconvene in Manchester on Tuesday to decide whether to issue a warning on Dr Anjum’s registration.
Anjum had admitted engaging in sexual activity with Nurse C and that he knew she was “likely to be nearby” when he left his patient. He also admitted his actions had the potential to put his patient at risk.
