Mr Onyekpe, a Nigerian-born medical doctor, was found guilty of misconduct in February for engaging in a sexual relationship with a patient in a restroom at a UK hospital.
A United Kingdom (UK) High Court has criticised the decision made by the Medical Practitioners Tribunal of the General Medical Council (MPT of the GMC) to suspend a Nigerian medical doctor, Ewere Onyekpe, who had been accused of sexually assaulting a female patient.
In a court document obtained by PREMIUM TIMES on Thursday, Justice Thomas Linden of the High Court of Justice King's Bench Division Administrative Court cited deficiencies in the decision-making process.
Mr Linden pointed out that the case was fundamentally flawed because it failed to adequately consider the events between the doctor and the patient.
He stated; "...My conclusion on Ground 1 was that the decision making of the GMC and the MPT in this case was fundamentally flawed because it did not give any or any adequate consideration to the evidence of what Patient A told Onyekpe about her circumstances.
"In particular, there was a failure adequately to consider (a) whether she was vulnerable for the purposes of the Sanctions Guidance and, if so, the degree of her vulnerability and, (b) what Onyekpe knew or ought to have known about these matters and what influence this had on his actions."
Mr Linden emphasised that these questions should have been raised by the allegations the MPT was tasked with considering and should have been thoroughly examined in the context of the entire body of evidence, but that they were not.
Background
Mr Onyekpe, a Nigerian-born medical doctor, was found guilty of misconduct in February for engaging in a sexual relationship with a patient in a restroom at the Accident and Emergency unit of the Whittington Hospital in London.
The decision to suspend the doctor was made on 19 January, 2023, and the MPT's order took effect 28 days later, with a review scheduled for the end of a six-month period.
This decision followed disciplinary proceedings in which Mr Onyekpe admitted that he had engaged in a sexual relationship with the patient in June and July 2020, which began after he had treated her in his role as a locum registrar in the Accident and Emergency department at the Whittington Hospital.
The MPT concluded that the charges against him, all of which he admitted, constituted "serious misconduct."
In a witness statement provided during the tribunal, Mr Onyekpe acknowledged and said; "I appreciate that what I did was awful and that I let down myself and my family and my colleagues.
"I also accept this because the power imbalance between me as a doctor and that of the patient, it can be perceived that I took advantage of my professional position in pursuing this brief sexual relationship, consensual though it may have been."
The tribunal heard the case and found Mr Onyekpe guilty of misconduct.
Case review
However, the Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care (PSA) is appealing against the decision of the medical tribunal.
It said; "the PSA's challenge to the decision of the MPT includes first, that the decision of the MPT was wrong and/or unjust because of a serious procedural irregularity, in that the charges against Mr Onyekpe did not adequately reflect the seriousness of his misconduct.
"The particular criticism which the PSA makes is that there should have been an allegation that Mr Onyekpe knew or ought to have known that Patient A was vulnerable or likely to be vulnerable. The lack of such an allegation meant that the full gravamen of his misconduct was not considered by the MPT ("Ground 1").
"Second, that the sanction of six months' suspension of Mr Onyekpe's registration was unduly lenient and insufficient for the protection of the public in any event. In particular, nothing short of erasure would have been sufficient to maintain public confidence in the profession, as well as proper professional standards and conduct for members of the profession ("Ground 2").
"Third, that the reasons given by the MPT for its decision on sanction were inadequate ("Ground 3")."
The PSA is an independent body that promotes the health, safety and wellbeing of patients, service users and the public. It does this by improving the regulation of people who work in health and social care and running the Accredited Registers programme for roles not regulated by law. The PSA is accountable to the UK Parliament.
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About Onyekpe
Mr. Onyekpe, born in Nigeria, received his medical qualification in 2003 from Kharkov State Medical University in Ukraine and began his medical practice in Nigeria, primarily within the Nigerian army.
According to the document obtained, in 2008, he moved to the United Kingdom and pursued a Master's degree in Public Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
He began his medical practice in 2010. Between 2013 and 2018, he completed a postgraduate diploma in emergency medicine at Manchester Metropolitan University and, starting in 2016, entered a formal training programme in emergency medicine. He completed his ST3 training in 2019 and worked night shifts in the A&E department at the Whittington from August to November 2019 and again from 4 March to 3 July, 2020, while being supplied by an agency.
