Doctor caused havoc after family upset

(First Edition)

A DOCTOR caused 12 days of havoc at a hospital after his mother threw him out of the house they shared for contravening Muslim law by buying bacon, the General Medical Council was told yesterday.

Dr Tuhin Ali, 29, of Hornsey, north London, struck a nurse with a sheaf of medical notes, told a patient she risked death from an X-ray, and wrote a threatening letter to a consultant surgeon, the professional conduct committee was told.

Dr Ali admitted six charges of misconduct while working as a locum house surgeon at the Joyce Green Hospital, Dartford, Kent, in December 1991 and January 1992.

Andrew Hockton, for Dr Ali, said his client had been upset at the time of the incident because his mother had found bacon in their refrigerator. 'She was a devout Muslim and threw him out of the house,' Mr Hockton said. The doctor could not recollect many of the incidents but accepted that what nurses and other staff at the hospital had said must be true. He was working long shifts of up to 36 hours and was tired but accepted that this was not an excuse.

Mr Hockton said the doctor was now in further trouble because he was facing 'somewhat more serious allegations' concerning incidents said to have happened last week. Mr Hockton declined to go into detail but said they had been 'of a bizarre nature'.

The committee found Dr Ali guilty of serious professional misconduct, and granted an application by his counsel for the case to be referred to the GMC's health committee.

It also made Dr Ali's registration conditional for seven months on the basis that he does not engage in direct clinical care of individual patients.