Doctor accused of disregarding patient

AN ON-CALL doctor did not respond urgently to concerns over an elderly man, who had experienced chest pains, because he was due to finish his shift in 20 minutes, a Medical Council fitness to practise hearing heard yesterday.

Clare Boyce, a support worker at Leavington Court care home in Lowestoft, England, told the hearing that Dr Rashid Motala, an Irish-registered doctor, showed a cavalier attitude when she contacted him about the 90-year-old man.

Ms Boyce said that when she came on duty at 7am on April 1st, 2008, she found the man to be pale, sweaty and chesty. He had earlier spoken of chest pains.

She decided to contact the on-call doctor rather than wait for the local clinic to open at 8.30am.

Ms Boyce’s call was returned within 10 minutes by Dr Motala, who is accused of failing to visit or to arrange an ambulance for the man, but he said he was due to finish his shift in 20 minutes and that she should contact a local GP at 8am.

The inquiry is examining a number of allegations against Dr Motala, who qualified from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland in 1984, which relate to his time in Britain. The hearing is being held in Ireland because he retains his registration here.

Also among the charges against him are allegations that he examined a patient in an inappropriate manner for his sexual gratification and offered to carry out an unnecessary examination of another patient. He denies all the charges.

An inquiry by the General Medical Council in Britain last year resulted in his suspension for 12 months, but a Supreme Court decision found that such suspensions could not be relied on in Ireland and separate hearings of the same evidence would have to be held by the Irish Medical Council.

Gabriel Gavigan, for Dr Motala, said Ms Boyce told his client the man was no longer experiencing chest pains and so he felt she was not reporting an emergency and an ambulance was not required.

Mr Gavigan said Dr Motala would have taken him more than an hour to reach Leavington Court. He said the local clinics, which Dr Motala was covering, would have been open by the time he got to the care home.

The hearing was adjourned until September 1st.