Doctor who fondled patients is struck off

Dr Parag Bhatt, 46, was sexually motivated as he groped his victims – one aged 16 – at a practice in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, a disciplinary panel ruled.

The General Medical Council fitness to practise hearing was told it was the first time the 16-year-old had visited a doctor on her own and she had since been unable to seek medical help unaccompanied.

Another of the patients, who only consulted Dr Bhatt for a swollen finger, explained how she felt "violated".

The GP was found guilty of misconduct in relation to his treatment of six patients at the Rosehill Medical Centre where he worked between January 2007 and September 2007.

In all of the cases, in which he touched their breasts as part of the examinations, he was found to have failed to provide adequate explanations to the patients as to what he was doing.

The panel ruled there was no clinical reason for five of the intimate check-ups which were also inappropriate and that he failed to offer a chaperone to four of the patients.

Dr Bhatt had been working under interim conditions for more than a year up until his erasure at the hearing in Manchester.

He was prevented from undertaking intimate examinations of female patients without a fully registered doctor or nurse present as a chaperone.

The panel noted, though, that his use of chaperones was not formally monitored in at least one practice where he had been working and that he had been undertaking home visits.