Senior nurse struck off after ‘repeatedly harassing’ female colleagues

‘I felt objectified – like a piece of meat – when I was there to do a job,’ colleague told tribunal

A former ward manager at the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust has been struck off the medical register (Graeme Robertson/Getty Images)

A senior nurse has been struck off after a tribunal that heard he “repeatedly harassed” female colleagues ruled his behaviour was “deplorable”.

Alfred Muvheni Mavurayi was alleged to have “constantly” made sexually explicit comments at “leered” at younger women while working as ward manager of the Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) at the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust.

Colleagues told a Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) tribunal in 2017 that although the 41-year-old manager behaved “shy” and “like a teenage boy” in front of women, he often became “very graphic” behind their backs.

Between September 2016 and October 2017, Mr Mavurayi – who had excused his behaviour as “harmless banter” – repeatedly asked a female trainee nurse out on a date on multiple occasions, the panel heard.

The nurse, named only as Colleague A, told the tribunal that Mr Mavurayi was “very flirty” with her and made her feel “uncomfortable”, accusing him of “using his position” as her manager to get her to meet him outside of work, leaving her “fearful of a conflict”.

Mr Mavurayi frequently stared at his junior colleague’s body and made frequent unsolicited comments, including asking her if she had been “doing squats” because her “bum was looking amazing”, the panel heard.

He is also alleged to have asked her to his office just to “talk” and done nothing to dispel rumours they were “sleeping together”.

The trainee nurse told the panel: “I had this difficulty in my mind that if I said something rude to my manager I could get in trouble. The few times that I did tell him to stop he would just smirk or laugh or say things like telling me to ‘lighten up’.

“I felt objectified – like a piece of meat – when I was there to do a job.”

Another colleague, a ward manager named as Colleague B, told the tribunal that Mr Mavurayi would “leer” at female colleagues, saying: “He would gaze at women very slowly with a weird smile on his face, with no shame.

"Alfie is quite shy when speaking to women directly but behind their backs he is very graphic. He is like a clumsy coward – like a teenage boy who does not know how to handle them close up.”

The manager told the panel that Mr Mavurayi would often make inappropriate comments, once saying of a pregnant female colleague: “If [she] was not pregnant I would f*** her – I’m going to smash that.”

The tribunal also heard that he told one colleague over the phone he wanted to see or touch her “pum pum”, Jamaican patois for female genitalia, and that he asked a colleague if she would spend the night with him in a hotel after a staff awards evening.

The Zimbabwean national – based in Kettering, Northamptonshire – had been employed as the ward manager for two years after previously working as the deputy ward manager.

He was suspended during the subsequent investigation into his alleged behaviour and comments, and was sacked for gross misconduct following the investigation in February 2018.

Panel chair Bryan Hume ruled that Mr Mavurayi's actions were “deplorable”, and said he had failed to lead the culture of the PICU ward in a “professional manner”.

“The panel considered that Mr Mavurayi breached professional boundaries on numerous occasions and repeatedly harassed more than one colleague over a prolonged period of time,” Mr Hume said.

“Mr Mavurayi was a senior member of staff, and should have led the culture in a professional manner as a manager but did not so.

“The panel concluded that Mr Mavurayi's conduct was deplorable and a significant departure from professional standards that it amounted to nothing short of misconduct.”

The panel struck Mr Mavurayi off the medical register after ruling his actions were “fundamentally incompatible” with him remaining on the register.

Additional reporting by Solent News