Senior anaesthetist left patient during surgery to have sex with nurse, tribunal hears

A senior consultant anaesthetist admitted leaving a patient under anaesthesia during a keyhole operation to engage in sexual activity with a nurse in an adjoining theatre, a medical tribunal in Manchester heard on Thursday.

The Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service was told the incident occurred on Sept. 16, 2023, at Tameside General Hospital while a series of five operations were under way in Theatre Number Five. Andrew Molloy, representing the General Medical Council, said the consultant, identified in tribunal documents as Dr. Suhail Anjum, left midway through the third case — a laparoscopic gallbladder removal — after indicating to the anaesthetic nurse on duty that he was going to the bathroom.

Molloy told the panel that a scrub nurse from another theatre, referred to as Nurse NT, went to Theatre Number Eight to retrieve equipment and encountered Dr. Anjum and a colleague, referred to as Nurse C, in a "compromising position." The tribunal was told Nurse NT described Nurse C with her trousers around her knees and her underwear visible while Dr. Anjum was in the act of tying the cord of his trousers. Nurse NT left and reported the matter.

Dr. Anjum returned to the operating theatre about eight minutes after he left, the hearing was told. Molloy said there was no dispute that the patient suffered no harm and that the procedure was completed without further incident.

During an interview after the incident, Dr. Anjum admitted leaving the patient and engaging in sexual activity with Nurse C, the tribunal heard. He now works in Pakistan. The panel must decide whether his fitness to practise is impaired by alleged misconduct.

Dr. Anjum, 44, who qualified at the University of Health Sciences in Lahore in 2004 and worked in the United Kingdom from 2011, told the tribunal he felt "shame and guilt" over the episode and said he did not know "why it happened" or "what I was thinking." He described the period as a difficult time for his family, saying his youngest daughter had been born prematurely and that his wife suffered trauma during the birth that left him taking on extra responsibilities.

Asked about the circumstances of the day, Dr. Anjum told the panel he had agreed to work the Saturday so he could have a weekday off to support his family and take his elder children to school. He said he had no prior complaints against him during his career and described the incident as "a one off error" for which he was "genuinely sorry and shamed."

Representatives for the General Medical Council told the tribunal that when consultants take short breaks during lists it is not unusual for them to be absent from the theatre and that cover would typically be provided by an experienced anaesthetic nurse. Molloy said there was no suggestion that the operating table in Theatre Number Eight had been moved by the two staff involved and that the table's position was routine for that room.

Dr. Anjum practised at several NHS trusts after arriving in the U.K., including posts in Bristol, Milton Keynes and Dartford before joining the Tameside and Glossop Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust in 2015. He left that trust in October 2024, had a subsequent post in Liverpool and returned to Pakistan in January.

The tribunal heard the episode has had a profound personal and professional impact on Dr. Anjum. He told the panel he accepts his conduct "fell far short of expected standards" and that he has "only myself to blame." Final submissions to the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service were scheduled for the following day, when the panel will consider whether his fitness to practise is impaired and what sanction, if any, should follow.