A doctor who abandoned a patient mid-surgery to have sex with a nurse has been told he can continue practicing medicine.
Dr Suhail Anjum, 44, was caught in a “compromising position” with the nurse at Tameside Hospital, Greater Manchester, after leaving an operation in September 2023.
He had stepped away from the operating theatre for what he claimed was a bathroom break, leaving a patient under general anaesthetic in the care of another nurse. Instead, he went into another theatre and was found by a shocked colleague, who walked in to see the nurse with her trousers around her knees and Dr Anjum tying up his trousers.
The patient was not harmed, but Dr Anjum was dismissed from his role in February 2024 after an internal investigation.
At a Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) hearing this week, Dr Anjum admitted his behaviour was “shameful” and accepted that his actions could have put the patient at risk.
He told the panel:
“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 my colleagues who gave me a lot of respect.”
The tribunal heard that Dr Anjum’s family had since relocated to Pakistan, where he has been working as a doctor, but he expressed a desire to continue his career in the UK.
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Panel chairwoman Rebecca Miller said his actions were serious enough to count as misconduct, but ruled he was at “very low” risk of repeating them.
She added that the public finding of serious misconduct was enough to maintain confidence in the medical profession, and that further sanctions were not necessary.
Dr Anjum insisted the incident was a “one-off error of judgment” and promised it would never happen again.
The tribunal will meet again to decide whether a formal warning should be attached to his registration.