A doctor who is facing a number of allegations including that he failed to answer his phone while on call, left a clinic without permission and failed to turn up for a ward round, has accused a former colleague of telling “a lie”.
Speaking by phone from the US, Dr Saquib Ahmed told a Medical Council Fitness to Practice Inquiry that evidence a patient in Limerick University Hospital's accident and emergency department needed immediate attention, was untrue.
Cancer specialist nurse at Limerick University Hospital Anne Gilmartin told the inquiry repeated calls were made to Dr Ahmed, who was the on-duty oncology registrar on the morning of 20th of October 2012, when he failed to turn up for rounds as expected.
Ms Gilmartin said the ward rounds usually started between 9am and 10am and while this was variable by prior arrangement, she was concerned as he had not shown up by 11.30am.
Ms Gilmartin said a locum haematologist waited for more than an hour for Dr Ahmed to turn up, but Dr Ahmed did not respond to his phone until about 11.30 when consultant medical oncologist Dr Linda Coate used her own mobile phone to contact him.
Ms Gilmartin said she filled out an incident report for two reasons: the first was that Dr Ahmed failed to answer his phone six times of which she was aware, and the second was because she received a call from the accident and emergency department that a patient there needed an assessment, and Dr Ahmed was not available to do it.
However Dr Ahmed, who is not legally represented at the inquiry, disputed that there was a patient in the accident and emergency department, at that time with symptoms as described. He said the suggestion there was, was “a lie”.
However at this point Tom Hogan counsel for the chief executive of the Medical Council, objected.
Mr Hogan said Ms Gilmartin was being “accused of telling lies” about the situation in accident in emergency department, when her evidence had only been what she had been told by that department.
Dr Ahmed apologised for the use of the word “lie” but insisted the situation in accident and emergency had not arisen as it had been described.
He asked Ms Gilmartin if she had ever had on any other occasion known him to not answer his phone for so long, to which she answered “no”.
Earlier, nurse Theresa Woodland told the inquiry it was normal for on-call registrars to call back within 30 minutes if they were not present when rounds were due. In answer to a question from she Dr Ahmed she said she had not seen him using abusive or threatening language to his colleagues on the day in question.
Dr Ahmed is facing eight allegations of professional misconduct and/or poor professional performance arising out of his time at Limerick University Hospital where he was employed as a junior registrar in medical oncology at the University Hospital Limerick between July and November 2012, after which he was put on administrative leave.
He denies the allegations and said he had difficulty understanding differences in clinical practices at Limerick.
Dr Ahmed also faces a number of allegations of responding in an aggressive manner to at least three of his senior colleagues when they sought to discuss his performance.
