A NAAS GP who was alleged to have conducted an inappropriate internal examination on a 35-year-old woman patient for his own sexual gratification was cleared of professional misconduct yesterday.
Dr Hashim Abdullah Mukhtar Eisa of Basin Street Medical Centre, Naas, was before a medical council fitness-to-practise inquiry facing this and a number of other allegations arising out of a consultation with Elaine McGrane on September 29th, 2009.
Ms McGrane, originally from Inchicore in Dublin but now living in Naas, told the inquiry she presented for review on that date after two miscarriages and was anxious to get pregnant. She said the GP told her to take off her bottom clothes and lie on the examination bench. He pressed her stomach and said that was okay and then asked if she and her husband engaged in much foreplay during lovemaking and whether she reached orgasm through sex or clitoral stimulation. She said she was taken aback as she didn’t know what this had to do with her getting pregnant.
She said he then put on gloves and started to rub her clitoris and asked if she got wet during sex. Breaking down in the witness box, Ms McGrane said she knew what was happening was wrong but she didn’t stop him. She said he then kind of cupped her breasts and squeezed her nipples, said everything seemed okay and she should come back in a couple of months if she didn’t get pregnant.
She did not return, found a female GP in the locality and now has a seven-month-old baby. Five months into her pregnancy when she felt strong enough she lodged a complaint with the medical council about Dr Hashim, she said.
Esmond Keane SC, for the doctor, put it to her that her account of what happened was false and there had been no internal examination. She replied: “It’s not false, definitely not false.” She said she contemplated telling the practice secretary Anne O’Gorman what happened as she left but Dr Hashim was there so she didn’t.
Dr Hashim emphatically denied all allegations against him. He said he never asked inappropriate questions and never conducted an inappropriate examination on her. He said the breast examination was just a visual one to see if there were any signs of pregnancy as he had put her on a five-day course of a fertility drug after an earlier consultation.
He also said the consultation with her would have been only five to seven minutes so he wouldn’t have had time to conduct the alleged internal examination. He said there was nothing in the medical notes about the internal examination because it didn’t take place.
Ms O’Gorman gave evidence and said she found Dr Hashim to be “a complete and utter gentleman”. She didn’t notice Ms McGrane being any different or in distress as she left on that day and was shocked when she heard the allegations.
The GP practice did not have a chaperone policy, she confirmed.
The fitness-to-practise committee, after deliberating for about 40 minutes, found none of the allegations against Dr Hashim had been proven. Dr Richard Brennan, chair of the committee, said the reason for this finding “was that the evidence presented did not reach the standard of proof required” which was proof beyond reasonable doubt. He added that nothing in the committee’s decision was meant to reflect on the evidence of Ms McGrane.