Health workers have claimed that while the NHS is awash with hundreds of sexual predators, a culture of silence sees most of them go unpunished.

Just 36 disgraced doctors have been struck off in the past year for sexual misconduct, despite serious accusations levelled at hundreds of staff.

Healthcare workers told MailOnline there was a silent abuse epidemic and accused NHS bosses of ‘silencing, slut-shaming and gaslighting’ victims.

Branding sexual misconduct in the NHS an ‘open secret‘, orthopaedic surgeon Simon Fleming said: ‘The number of doctors being struck off is not even the tip of the iceberg – they’re the tip of the tip.

‘Healthcare has a problem with sexual harassment, sexual assault and rape. It is an uncomfortable truth, but the truth nonetheless.’

Have YOU been gaslit by NHS bosses? Email [email protected]

Fleur Curtis, 44, (pictured) was forced to quit her job as a physician associate at Shrewsbury and Telford NHS Trust after being sexually assaulted by a house doctor

Fleur Curtis, 44, (pictured) was forced to quit her job as a physician associate at Shrewsbury and Telford NHS Trust after being sexually assaulted by a house doctor

Salman Siddiqi (pictured) arranged to meet an underage boy for sex on the grounds of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Hospital in Margate, Kent

Salman Siddiqi (pictured) arranged to meet an underage boy for sex on the grounds of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Hospital in Margate, Kent

Dr Robert Varnam (pictured), a GP and former NHS England director, was convicted of downloading child porn

Dr Robert Varnam (pictured), a GP and former NHS England director, was convicted of downloading child porn

Romanian doctor Iuliu Stan (pictured) was struck off this month after subjecting patients to intimate procedures they did not need for sexual kicks

Romanian doctor Iuliu Stan (pictured) was struck off this month after subjecting patients to intimate procedures they did not need for sexual kicks

NHS psychiatrist Jamal Hilal (pictured), a Sudanese doctor based in Newcastle, massaged a junior member of staff's breasts in an 'unnecessary and inappropriate' medical examination

NHS psychiatrist Jamal Hilal (pictured), a Sudanese doctor based in Newcastle, massaged a junior member of staff’s breasts in an ‘unnecessary and inappropriate’ medical examination

An investigation by the British Medical Journal revealed how 35,606 ‘sexual safety incidents’ were recorded by NHS hospitals in England in five years, ranging from abusive remarks to rape allegedly perpetrated by staff, patients and visitors

More than 4,000 hospital staff were accused of sexual misconduct in the five years to 2022, the statistics show, but just 576 faced internal disciplinary action. The NHS claimed this figure included repeat offenders and non-NHS staff but refused to provide any proof.

Fewer still were referred to the regulator, the General Medical Council (GMC), to face fitness to practise hearings, which could see them struck off by the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS).

In the five years to March 2023, GMC received 526 complaints of sexual assault involving patients and staff.

But of 233 completed investigations, just a handful of doctors were struck off.

Doctors hauled up for misconduct can face sanctions including warnings, conditions and being erased from the register. 

Since 2020, only 87 doctors have been banned for sexual misconduct – 12 in 2020, 16 in 2021, 23 in 2022 and another 36 in the 12 months to February this year. The figures include doctors working in private capacities.

The recent surge came after the GMC vowed to crack down with ‘zero tolerance’.

However, Dr Fleming said: ‘The GMC is working to change how they handle these issues but current systems are still inadequate and not fit for purpose.

‘Doctors openly talk about the fear of repercussions if they report predators – the NHS has a long way to go to create a culture of sexual safety for its staff and its patients.

‘Sadly silencing, slut-shaming and gaslighting is the way things currently play out in the NHS.’

Fleur Curtis, 44, was forced to quit her job as a physician associate at Shrewsbury and Telford NHS Trust after being sexually assaulted by a house doctor.

She was groped at work by specialist registrar Mahendar Katarapu, 44, and endured panic attacks and post-traumatic stress as a result of the Trust’s inaction.

The doctor, branded ‘creepy’ by colleagues, was reported to bosses but Fleur was allegedly told: ‘Suspensions are bad for doctors’ careers’.

Fleur, now an award-winning hat designer behind Oscar and Willow Millinery, said: ‘The reason these figures are just the tip of the iceberg is the management culture in the NHS – they just don’t seem to get it.

Children's doctor Salman Siddiqi (pictured) was arrested in a sting led by a self-professed paedophile hunter and jailed for 28 months

Children’s doctor Salman Siddiqi (pictured) was arrested in a sting led by a self-professed paedophile hunter and jailed for 28 months

It emerged during his disciplinary hearing that he had been able to continue working at the Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Hospital in Margate, Kent, despite having a police caution for flashing

It emerged during his disciplinary hearing that he had been able to continue working at the Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Hospital in Margate, Kent, despite having a police caution for flashing

Pictured: Salman Siddiqi after his arrest by Kent Police. He was later struck off the medical register

Pictured: Salman Siddiqi after his arrest by Kent Police. He was later struck off the medical register

Dr Robert Varnam (pictured), a GP and former NHS England director, was struck off in January after more than 200 indecent images of children were found on the 53-year-old's devices

Dr Robert Varnam (pictured), a GP and former NHS England director, was struck off in January after more than 200 indecent images of children were found on the 53-year-old’s devices

NHS psychiatrist Jamal Hilal, 62, (pictured) told a trainee she was the 'perfect woman', and quizzed her about her sex life, asking if she was 'experimental'

NHS psychiatrist Jamal Hilal, 62, (pictured) told a trainee she was the ‘perfect woman’, and quizzed her about her sex life, asking if she was ‘experimental’

‘In my case, the management didn’t recognise that the offending doctor should have been suspended and investigated with immediate effect.

‘They just moved him from one hospital to another within the same Trust.

‘They didn’t recognise that it was a criminal act that should have been reported to the police, or that it was sexual misconduct that should have been reported to the GMC.

‘It took months of me fighting them to take it seriously, resulting eventually in [an] internal investigation and [his] dismissal.

‘I’d worked for the NHS all my life, and had a career that I loved, but I just felt that I had no other option than to leave.

‘The whole thing took months for me to get them to take it seriously but it took them years to admit they had dealt with it wrong.’

Katarapu was struck off in 2021 after 39 allegations concerning six women were found to be true.

Recent cases of doctors struck off for sexual misconduct are harrowing to read.

Romanian doctor Iuliu Stan was struck off this month after subjecting patients to intimate procedures they did not need for sexual kicks.

A misconduct panel ruled he ‘preyed’ on vulnerable patients including young boys at Royal Cornwall Hospital over a five-year period.

Patients were subjected to unnecessary anal examinations and medications being inserted into their rectums by Dr Iuliu Stan.

NHS psychiatrist Jamal Hilal, a Sudanese doctor based in Newcastle, massaged a junior member of staff’s breasts in an ‘unnecessary and inappropriate’ medical examination.

The 62-year-old told the trainee she was the ‘perfect woman’, and quizzed her about her sex life, asking if she was ‘experimental’.

Junior NHS doctor Aleksejs Cvetkovs, 51, was struck off over an illicit encounter with a drug addict patient at The Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle, Cumbria.

Latvian-born Cvetkovs gave the woman money, knowing she would use it to buy drugs, before they had sex in her flat.

Junior NHS doctor Aleksejs Cvetkovs, 51, (pictured) was struck off over an illicit encounter with a drug addict patient at The Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle, Cumbria

Junior NHS doctor Aleksejs Cvetkovs, 51, (pictured) was struck off over an illicit encounter with a drug addict patient at The Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle, Cumbria

Latvian-born Cvetkovs gave the woman money, knowing she would use it to buy drugs, before they had sex in her flat

Latvian-born Cvetkovs gave the woman money, knowing she would use it to buy drugs, before they had sex in her flat

GP Dharmapragasam Inthiraraj behaved in a ‘predatory manner’ towards two women at a clinic in Ealing, west London.

He performed an intimate exam on a 63-year-old patient without consent, a disciplinary hearing was told in January. When she tried to get up, he pushed her chest and told her: ‘Cool down, nothing has happened… enjoy it.’

Alan Taman, from the campaigning group Doctors for the NHS, said: ‘We can only hope these numbers are higher because this perverse minority are being found out more often.

‘What we do know is this is always wrong. Doctors are allowed – expected – to do things to you that no one else would without your permission.

‘Doing that for sexual arousal is a betrayal of you and medicine alike. There should be no tolerance for that, and no hiding place.

‘The NHS is there for us all. Acts like this destroy trust in it.’

Solicitor Samantha Dickinson, of law firm Mayo Wynne Baxter, said: ‘The NHS must take immediate action to ensure it is providing a safe place of work for female staff.

‘Sexual harassment is legally and morally reprehensible in any workplace. It doesn’t matter how senior or high-performing these male surgeons are – sexual misconduct cannot be tolerated.

‘There must be a zero-tolerance approach to all sexual harassment and sexual violence.

‘Statistics seem to show that very few male doctors who are found to have committed sexual misconduct are then struck off, which is outrageous.

‘We should remember that the stories we hear about are likely to be just the tip of the iceberg, as many women will keep quiet to avoid further harassment or losing their jobs – which means the scale of this awful behaviour is worse than we think.

‘Those who are covering up sexual harassment and allowing it to go unpunished are perpetuating a culture of silence and compounding the harm caused to survivors.

‘It is concerning for staff, patients, and the public that these predators are allowed to continue in their roles.

‘The NHS is in the grip of a staffing crisis and if it continues to tolerate this misogynistic behaviour, that crisis will get worse.’

Other troubling recent cases include Dr Robert Varnam, a GP and former NHS England director, who was convicted of downloading child porn.

He was struck off in January after more than 200 indecent images of children were found on the 53-year-old’s devices.

Another is disgraced children’s doctor Salman Siddiqi, who arranged to meet an underage boy for sex on the grounds of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Hospital in Margate, Kent.

He was arrested in a sting led by a self-professed paedophile hunter and jailed for 28 months.

It emerged during his disciplinary hearing that he had been able to continue working at the hospital despite having a police caution for flashing.

The scourge of sexual misconduct is not confined just to the NHS.

A Cambridge-educated medic took advantage of his patients at Cadogan Clinic, a boutique hospital in west London which treats 20,000 patients a year.

Married plastic surgeon Olivier Branford, 50, slept with three vulnerable patients after sending them explicit messages – and told one he wanted to ‘oil her up’. 

The father-of-three sent one patient a photo of her naked on the operating table and then asked her to return in thigh-high boots and lingerie for role-play sex.

She told The Times last July: ‘He wanted to role play, that doctor-patient fantasy thing.

Married plastic surgeon Olivier Branford, 50, (picture) slept with three vulnerable patients after sending them explicit messages - and told one he wanted to 'oil her up'

Married plastic surgeon Olivier Branford, 50, (picture) slept with three vulnerable patients after sending them explicit messages – and told one he wanted to ‘oil her up’

‘Instead of calling him ”Ollie” as he had previously insisted, I had to call him ”Dr Branford”.

‘He would say things like ”How can I help? Let me have a closer look,” as if talking from a prepared script. He had a bottle of lubricant next to the examination table, all set up.’

She told how she found the sex rough and painful, adding: ‘My stitches hadn’t even dissolved. And it’s not like he was gentle. It was a massive abuse of power. I was on a lot of drugs after surgery.’

MailOnline’s investigation comes after research last year revealed almost a third of female NHS surgeons said they had been sexually assaulted by a male colleague in the past five years.

Nearly one in 100 of them were raped, the study by the University of Exeter found. Junior staff said they were afraid to speak out as it could cost them their jobs.

Meanwhile, research in the British Journal of Surgery found that 63.3 per cent of female surgeons had been sexually harassed, while 89.5 per cent reported witnessing such behaviour.

The survey of more than 1,700 surgeons in the UK also found that 29.9 per cent of female surgeons had been sexually assaulted.

The GMC’s fitness to practice chief and general counsel, Anthony Omo, said: ‘We are very clear that there is no place for any form of sexual assault, harassment or discrimination in the medical profession.

‘Our updated professional standards for doctors, Good Medical Practice, sets out a zero tolerance of sexual misconduct and that acting in a sexual way towards patients or colleagues is unacceptable.

‘In many cases involving sexual allegations, the GMC’s position will be that such serious misconduct is incompatible with continued registration. As a regulator, we also have a responsibility to support all those raising a concern.

‘For doctors, we provide support which includes a confidential helpline, which helps them raise concerns or ask for advice if they do not feel able to do so in their workplace. Our Outreach teams also work closely with employers to make sure that serious concerns about doctors are referred to us for investigation.

‘Patients and doctors must be supported by environments that are free from all forms of sexual misconduct.’

An NHS spokeswoman said: ‘Sexual misconduct in any form is completely unacceptable and the NHS is committed to ensuring a safe workplace for staff and patients.

‘The NHS has launched a sexual safety charter which all trusts in England need to sign up to, committing them to ensuring appropriate reporting mechanisms are in place for those experiencing any unwanted, inappropriate or harmful sexual behaviours at work, so that incidents can be recorded anonymously and safely.’

Have YOU been gaslit by NHS bosses? 

A spokeswoman for The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, said: ‘Although we are unable to comment on individual cases, we take our responsibilities to protect our staff very seriously. We have acted upon recommendations to improve support and training for staff.

‘We are fully committed to creating a safe, supportive environment for all colleagues and have embedded Freedom to Speak Up, and many other routes, throughout our organisation to encourage any concerns to be raised and acted upon.’

Cadogan Clinic and Olivier Bradford did not respond to requests for comment.

At the time of his tribunal, Tracy Sell-Peters, partner at Keystone Law, said in a statement issued on Branford’s behalf: ‘The Medical Practitioners tribunal found that Mr Branford was unwell at the time of these events and Mr Branford’s position is that he was not conscious of his illness. He has spent three years working on his recovery but remains very unwell from a mental health point of view. In due course, Mr Branford may explain his position further, but not when he is unwell. Mr Branford entirely refutes any suggestion that he offered the patients free treatment in exchange for their silence.’

A spokesman for the Cadogan Clinic said at the time: ‘The Cadogan Clinic maintains the highest standard of patient care and safety as assessed by our regulator, the CQC. In this case, the consultant deceived the clinic over a period of time. As soon as we became aware of Mr Branford’s misconduct, we took every available step to stop him practising, with us and with other providers. We agree with external review that the misconduct could not have been prevented, but we have nevertheless worked tirelessly with all the regulators to ensure that our systems are robust, and we continue to offer the highest standard of patient safety.’ 

Post source: Daily mail

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