Doctor who offered to massage female colleague if she 'lost a stone' suspended for sexual harassment
A doctor who offered to massage a female colleague if she "lost a stone" has been suspended for sexual harassment.
Dr David Darby was working at the Isebrook Hospital in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, when he asked the woman if she was menopausal and if she still ovulated.
He was also found to have told the woman in June 2017: "If you lose a stone, I will give you a massage", or words to that effect.
Dr Darby has been suspended for three months by the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service.
A panel said he had not "demonstrated that he accepts responsibility for sexually harassing a colleague”.
The panel added that Dr Darby had “offered apologies for creating a situation during which [the woman] supposedly misinterpreted his actions”.
The woman told investigators that she was "absolutely shocked" and "embarrassed" by Dr Darby's questions.
Dr Darby was found to have been responsible for “serious breaches” of good medical practice.
He said he had been unable to practise medicine for three-and-a-half years because of the proceedings and that he would have been able to treat about 8,700 patients in that time.
He said any long suspension would have meant that patients would suffer and that he was “very sorry… for what he had caused”.
Dr Darby said he was willing to take a course on professional boundaries.
The panel found the complaint was an isolated incident, that Dr Darby had positive references and had expressed regret and apologised it happened.
It said the three-month suspension would "sufficiently mark the seriousness of Dr Darby's misconduct and send a signal to the profession that such behaviour is unacceptable."
His registration will be suspended 28 days after he is sent written notification from the MPTS about his suspension, unless he lodges an appeal.
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