FEMALE COLLEAGUES of a doctor facing seven allegations of professional misconduct did not want to work “in isolation with him”, a Medical Council fitness-to-practise hearing was told yesterday.
Dr Matthew Goodyear told the hearing that it became “common knowledge” within one or two weeks of the employment of Dr Onada Olajide Onada (40) at University Hospital Galway that he was sending inappropriate texts and emails to female members of the team.
“It was causing a lot of distress,” he said.
Among the allegations against Dr Onada are that he engaged in harassing, inappropriate or intimidating verbal, email or SMS communications with at least four female colleagues while working at the hospital as a senior house officer from August 2010 to January 2011.
It is also alleged that he failed to respond to his pager on at least five occasions, failed to inform the hospital in time that he would not be attending for duty and failed to take blood specimens from patients in a timely manner.
Dr Onada was dismissed from the hospital after a series of disciplinary meetings.
Dr Goodyear, a specialist haematology registrar at the Mater hospital in Dublin, who had worked in Galway in 2010, said he recalled receiving a text message from Dr Onada about one of the doctors at the centre of the allegations, Dr M. It had said she needed to see a psychiatrist.
He said he thought such a text “out of the blue” was “quite bizarre” and he laughed and forwarded it to Dr M.
He told the inquiry Dr Onada was “satisfactory enough from a clinical point of view” but it was “very uncomfortable working with a doctor who treats female staff in such a poor manner.
“People did not want to work in isolation with Dr Onada,” he said.
Dr Goodyear sent an email to the medical manpower manager at the hospital complaining about Dr Onada and calling him a “problematic senior house officer”.
He raised concerns about the text messages Dr Onada had sent as well as about the difficulty of contacting him on his bleep and said that he had not followed hospital processes in relation to taking annual leave.
Under cross-examination from Dr Onada, who was not legally represented, Dr Goodyear was asked if he thought Dr M was “emotional” or “tearful” or needed a psychiatrist.
Dr Goodyear said Dr M was one of the best colleagues he had ever worked with.
“Your contact towards her did cause her to be upset,” he said.
Dr Onada asked Dr Goodyear to explain how he had been inappropriate towards female colleagues given that he had not accepted any invitations to coffee, to drinks and had not invited anyone back to his home or given them gifts.
He also asked if he thought Dr M had behaved appropriately by asking him if he would like to go to the pub on the first day he was at work.
Dr Goodyear said Dr M had also invited all of her other colleagues and she was just being friendly.
Dr Gregory Leonard, consultant oncologist at the hospital, who was Dr Onada’s supervisor for three months, told the inquiry he had been sent an email by Dr Aishling Nee, another of the women at the centre of the allegations.
It outlined her concerns at text messages and emails she received from Dr Onada.
Asked by JP McDowell, solicitor for the Medical Council, what he thought of the email, he said he had never come across an incident like it before.
“It was very unusual and disappointing for Dr Nee to be exposed to this . . . I hoped it would have a quick resolution,” he said.
The fitness-to-practise hearing continues on Friday.
