Medic struck off for kissing and touching colleagues

A medic has been struck off for kissing and touching his female colleagues as they tried to care for patients.

Stephen Spencer, an operating department practitioner at Wrightington Hospital in Appley Bridge, was described as "leery" by one colleague and left another feeling "violated and intimidated".

When questioned by his managers he told them the allegations had been "bang out of order" and added: "I'm old school and will always help women."

However, Spencer was investigated by regulator the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) and found guilty of gross misconduct at a tribunal.

He was referred to the HCPC by Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh Teaching Hospital NHS Trust after an internal investigation into his conduct.

In a written judgment the tribunal panel said the first complainant, referred to as Colleague A, was standing near a patient while working with Spencer in September 2022.

The judgment described how he moved from near the head of the patient to where she was standing by their feet.

The tribunal heard that she "thought that he was going to say something about the patient, but instead he kissed her on her right cheek".

The kiss left her feeling "shaken and uncomfortable," Colleague A said.

She told the tribunal she was unsure if she was being "oversensitive" so asked a friend and a male colleague, who both agreed it had been inappropriate.

When confronted by managers, Spencer claimed he had simply kissed her to "congratulate her on a new relationship".

However the woman said they had been talking about the patient and denied they had been discussing her relationship.

The second complainant said she was preparing to help lift a patient from an operating table to a bed in July 2022 when she was touched inappropriately.

She said she was standing by the patient's head when Spencer placed his hand on her waist and "physically moved her" to the foot end of the patient.

The woman, referred to as Colleague D, said she initially did not think much of it as "some people are naturally tactile".

However, what happened next made her reconsider.

The tribunal heard that after the patient had been moved and she was about to remove her theatre gown, Spencer came up behind her, unfastened the top part of her gown and "stroked her neck" for two or three seconds.

When she told him to stop and that she could take her gown off herself, Spencer "slipped his arm across the base of her waist", untied the gown and then "squeezed her waist".

Spencer then made a comment that he would have "liked to rip it off her", the tribunal heard.

Colleague D told investigators that she was convinced the touching was sexual as there was "no need" to touch her skin.

"The touch of the neck was lingering, not an accidental brush," the tribunal heard.

"Her perception was that the registrant's fingers were there quite deliberately, and the same with the squeeze of the waist."

When interviewed by his bosses Spencer claimed he had simply been trying to help Colleague D remove her gown, but the panel agreed with her evidence.

He said he was "fuming" about the allegations and that the women had been "twisting the knife".

However, he did not engage with the HCPC process after the case was referred, which continued in his absence.

The panel said: "The Registrant had crossed boundaries with two female colleagues and, in respect of Colleague D, had persisted with sexualised touching for his own gratification when expressly told that his conduct was unwanted."

He was also found guilty of making an incorrect entry in a controlled drugs book claiming that end-of-shift checks had been carried out when they had not.

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