Regulator seeks to overturn light-touch sanction against surgeon who harassed colleagues

The UK’s medical regulator has lodged an appeal after a tribunal suspended a doctor for just eight months despite finding he sexually harassed a number of junior staff members.

The General Medical Council is seeking to overturn a decision by the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service, calling for Dr James Gilbert to be struck off.

The move comes following a report by The Independent which revealed hundreds of doctors have been allowed to go on practising without sanctions after harassment, sexual assault and rape allegations.

In August, Dr Gilbert was found to have sexually harassed four women and inappropriately touched three of them. He was given an eight-month suspension by the MPTS.

During the hearing the GMC outlined a catalogue of alleged behaviour between 2009 and 2022, including allegations he said to a trainee “’so are you a spurter? I can always tell which girls are the spurters’, or words to that effect.”

He also allegedly said: “‘You’re a well put together girl, you must always wear matching underwear, correct? What kind are you wearing now?”

In another alleged incident he ran his hands up and down a junior colleague’s body without consent.

During Dr Gilbert’s medical tribunal, the GMC had asked the MPTS to deliver a harsher sanction and erase him from the register. However, the MPTS panel said: “Mr Gilbert’s misconduct, whilst a serious breach of Good Medical Practice, was not fundamentally incompatible with continued registration and that erasure of Mr Gilbert’s name from the Medical Register would be disproportionate. It remained of the view that a period of suspension was the appropriate and proportionate response.”

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This publication previously revealed that the Doctors Association UK sent a letter to the Professional Standards Authority, asking for it to overturn the suspension and pursue a harsher sanction.

The DAUK called for the surgeon to be erased from the medical register for his “abhorrent” behaviour and claimed the decision by the MPTS was insufficient to protect the public.

Following the GMC’s latest move, Doctors’ Association UK said: “We welcome the GMC’s recognition that James Gilbert’s tribunal outcome was insufficient to protect staff and patients. There can be absolutely no place for such behaviours in healthcare. However, we are deeply concerned that the GMC continues to exercise its right to appeal tribunal decisions, despite the 2018 Williams review’s clear recommendation to remove this power.”

It said the Professional Standards Authority is currently in the process of reviewing the case and that DAUK hopes it will come to a similar conclusion and bring a High Court appeal against the MPTS decision.

Anthony Omo, General Counsel and Director of Fitness to Practise at the GMC said: “There is no place for any form of sexual assault, misconduct, or harassment in healthcare, nor for any form of racism or discrimination.”

“The GMC received a referral about Mr James Gilbert, in June 2022, and we swiftly took action to investigate fully, referring the matter to the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service for a hearing. During the tribunal hearing, we argued that Mr Gilbert should be erased from the medical register because his actions were fundamentally incompatible with continued registration.

“The tribunal imposed an eight-month suspension, which we do not believe is sufficient to protect the public, and that is why we have appealed.”

He said the GMC thanks the doctors who came forward to raise their serious concerns about Mr Gilbert and who assisted the investigation.

The MPTS declined to comment.

In a statement Dr Gilbert said: “I accept the outcome of the MPTS hearing and deeply regret the mistakes I have made in my interactions with colleagues and my failures to perceive and understand the impact of my behaviour. I will use the period of suspension to continue to reflect and remedy my behaviour to ensure that it does not occur again.”