A Nigerian accident and emergency doctor in the UK that traced two female patients by using hospital records, and had sexual relations with them, has been struck off the UK medical register.
A Medical Practitioners Tribunal was informed that Dr.Christopher Uzodike, who worked at Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital copied the phone numbers of two patients from the hospital records after they visited the A&E department in 2016.
The Tribunal was also informed that Dr. Uzodike had sexual relationship with the women.
In a report, the Medical Practitioners Tribunal discovered that many of the allegations levelled against Dr. Uzodike were proven and the tribunal concluded that his actions were “sexually motivated” and “planned, repeated and sustained”.
The tribunal’s report said: “The tribunal has found proved that Dr Uzodike had sexual intercourse with both Patient A and Patient B therefore it determined that his actions in taking their numbers from the medical records was sexually motivated.”
Dr. Uzodike reportedly met the first patient when she attended A&E in June 2016 and massaged her through WhatsApp later that day. The tribunal discovered that he engaged in an ’emotional and sexual relationship with her until April 2018.’
In September 2016, the second patient attended A&E and Uzodike sent her a text message to tell her he could not let her “curves walk past.” The duo later met her for a drink and Uzodike had sex with her.
The panel remarked that Dr. Uzodike was of previous good character and had even gone for a ‘maintaining professional boundaries course’ but the General Medical Council’s counsel, Ms. Kathryn Johnson said she felt the act might be repeated.
In a statement issued to the tribunal recently, Dr Uzodike said: “Life is all about choices and regrettably, these were the bad choices that I made. I feel ashamed of my behaviour and how I let this happen.
”I have let so many people down, I let the patients down, I lost the confidence of the public in the profession, I let my hardworking colleagues down.
“I deeply regret what I did, and I am extremely remorseful. I cannot turn the hand of time, but I have taken steps and will continue to do so to make sure that the risk of a future occurrence is eliminated.”
Uzodike’s counsel, Lee Gledhill said the erasure of Uzodike from the register would be ‘inappropriate and have a disproportionate impact on the doctor and his family financially.’
The panel however ruled that: ‘A lesser sanction than erasure would not sufficiently protect the public, maintain public confidence in the profession and uphold proper professional standards for members of the profession.
‘The Tribunal took the view that both patients’ motives were similar in that they both wanted to make sure that Dr Uzodike was prevented from acting in the future in the same way that had been alleged.
‘The Tribunal also took into account Patient B’s evidence about her now working in the NHS and the importance of protecting patients.’
