Former King's Mill doctor cleared of making sexual phone call to patient at tribunal

Dr Ashok Kumar Singh faced a medical practitioners misconduct tribunal having been accused of sexually motivated actions against the woman.

Dr Singh also allegedly telephoned the patient at home and told her to check her breasts and vagina for lumps when she saw him almost 20 years ago.

Dr Singh told the tribunal he did not recall the phone conversations with the patient, but did not dispute that calls were made to her following her discharge from Millbrook Mental Health Unit next to King's Mill Hospital, Sutton.

The tribunal noted that medical notes from another doctor, Dr Ward, called as a witness do not record the specific wording the patient alleged Dr Singh used during the calls.

It also referred to its previous findings that the patient had been unreliable and not credible in relation to her allegations of inappropriate physical examinations of her by Dr Singh.

The tribunal determined there was insufficient detail in Dr Ward’s note to support the patient's account of the calls.

Therefore, the panel considered that the General Medical Council, had not provided sufficient evidence to prove Dr Singh had asked the patient to feel her breasts or vagina for lumps.

It was also alleged that in 2015, Dr Singh inappropriately touched another patient during a consultation, but the tribunal also found this unproven.

Dr Singh started his senior house officer post in psychiatry at Millbrook in August 2000.

He then worked in various posts in psychiatry until 2004 when he was employed as a staff grade psychiatrist in Nottinghamshire.

In 2012, Dr Singh decided to retrain as a general practitioner.

Following six months as a GP registrar at a GP practice and 18 months in various hospital specialities in a Norfolk hospital, Dr Singh’s final training placement was at a Norwich GP practice between February 2014 and January 2015.

The alleged events were the subject of a criminal trial at Norwich Crown Court in November 2016, where Dr Singh was cleared.

He has not completed his GP training and, since his acquittal, his medical posts have been in psychiatry.