Isle of Wight doctor struck off for grooming vulnerable patients - tribunal

Dr Yousry Kamel molested patients and staff shortly after joining Isle of Wight NHS Trust

A married doctor who made sexual advances towards patients and colleagues has been struck off for repeating the behaviour at his new job.

Dr Yousry Kamel was previously suspended while working for Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust but resumed the abuse soon after starting an NHS post on the Isle of Wight in 2011.

His medical licence was erased by the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service.

The tribunal heard he had also "groomed" vulnerable patients.

Isle of Wight NHS Trust has apologised to those affected.

Dr Kamel, an anaesthetics and pain specialist from Egypt, was suspended by the General Medical Council for a year in 2010 for visiting vulnerable patients at home uninvited, touching them and making sexual comments.

However, his "concerning behaviour pattern towards women" resumed within four months of him starting a new job, the tribunal said.

In 2012, he molested two junior colleagues, leaving one "shaken" after he pinned and stroked her.

Two years later he "groomed" two patients with mental health conditions, the tribunal added.

'Power imbalance'

He told one woman he had a foot fetish and repeatedly visited her home, it said.

The tribunal heard another vulnerable patient, who was self-harming, was frightened he might visit, telling a housing officer: "I feel dirty in a way. Locked my door."

Dr Kamel targeted women due to their "vulnerability and a power imbalance", it found.

It concluded: "The 2010 decision and suspension clearly did not have any salutary effect on him at all."

The doctor did not appear at the hearing, saying he had retired from practice in 2018.

Isle of Wight NHS Trust issued a warning to Dr Kamel about his behaviour in 2013 and raised concerns with the General Medical Council in 2015, the tribunal said.

A spokesperson for the trust said: "Dr Kamel was employed by the Isle of Wight NHS Trust between December 2011 and July 2018 and we are sorry that any patients under our care or staff who worked with him experienced this unacceptable behaviour."