A medical inquiry has found a well-known Dublin GP not guilty of professional misconduct over allegations that he conducted an unauthorised medical assessment of a psychiatric patient while representing himself as acting for the Qatari embassy.
A fitness-to-practise committee of the Medical Council ruled that the case against Dr Bassam Naser, who operates a family practice in Sutton, was not proven.
However, the committee found Dr Naser guilty of engaging in rude, aggressive and unprofessional conduct with staff while visiting the patient at the Drogheda Department of Psychiatry in Drogheda, Co Louth on May 20th, 2018, but said the finding did not constitute professional misconduct.
The GP had been accused of falsely claiming in a phone call to a social worker on April 30, 2018 that he was attached to the Qatari embassy and seeking details of the medical condition of a patient at the HSE-run mental healthcare facility when he was not the individual’s family doctor and had no authority to access such information.
The patient, a Qatari national, had been involuntarily detained the previous day after suffering a psychotic episode from suspected drug use.
The FTP committee also found Dr Naser not guilty of a separate charge that he had told a clinical nurse manager, Colum Butler, on May 20th, 2018, that he had been appointed by the Qatari Embassy to carry out the assessment when he knew such a claim was untrue.
Qatari embassy
During a three-day inquiry held earlier this year, Dr Naser – who is commonly known as “Dr Sam” – denied misrepresenting himself to staff at the Drogheda Department of Psychiatry in relation to the patient.
In evidence, Dr Naser explained he had been contacted by the Palestinian ambassador to Ireland who had in turn been contacted by the Qatari embassy in London about the patient whose father was a Qatari national who was anxious to find out about what happened to his son.
He said he was asked by the Palestinian ambassador to intervene as he spoke Arabic and had been a doctor in Ireland for 40 years.
Dr Naser said he had acted out of compassion in helping the man who had cried repeatedly after arriving in Ireland.
The inquiry heard the man’s wife was receiving treatment for cancer at the same time in the US.
Dr Naser said he was “taken aback” by the attitude of Mr Butler when he visited the facility with the patient’s father.
However, the inquiry’s chairperson, Paul Harkin, said the committee was satisfied that an angry exchange had taken place at a nurses’ station between Dr Naser and Mr Butler which had been precipitated by the GP’s “unprofessional and rude conduct” towards the nurse.
Mr Harkin said Dr Naser’s explanation that he did not want to create any trouble was “simply not credible.”
He noted that the GP had made allegations about Mr Butler in evidence that he had not raised before or during cross-examination of the nurse.
The committee said it was satisfied that Dr Naser was prepared to make allegations about others “as and when it suits him.”
'Fine margin'
It criticised his conduct on the day as well as his evidence to the inquiry but said that “by a fine margin”, while unacceptable, it did not constitute professional misconduct.
Mr Harkin said the disagreement should not have happened but that Dr Naser was primarily to blame for it, although he acknowledged that the doctor was “trying to be a good Samaritan” by helping the patient’s father at the request of the Qatari embassy.
He observed that the GP had become frustrated at the professional conduct of Mr Butler supporting the patient’s rights and had reacted unprofessionally.
Outlining the inquiry’s other findings, Mr Harkin said it was not proven beyond reasonable doubt that Dr Naser had misrepresented himself as being attached to the Qatari embassy in a phone call with a social worker.
It made a similar finding in relation to the allegation that Dr Naser had carried out a medical or psychiatric assessment of the patient on May 20, 2018.
Mr Harkin said the GP, who was the only person to give evidence about his meeting with the patient, had insisted that they only had a general conversation about the patient’s wish to return home and to fly aeroplanes.
He noted that Mr Butler had only observed the 15-minute conversation between the GP and the patient through a window.
The committee observed that there was no record in medical notes that Dr Naser had told staff that he had carried out an assessment of the patient as claimed by Mr Butler.
It also observed that Mr Butler had not seen Dr Naser take any notes during the meeting with the patient as might be expected with a medical assessment.
In addition, the committee said there were no medical records of a request by Dr Naser to access the patient’s file as alleged by Mr Butler.
It noted that Mr Butler had also accepted during the inquiry that he might have been incorrect in stating that the GP had claimed that he had been “appointed” by the Qatari embassy.
Mr Harkin said such allegations were unproven as the GP was entitled to the benefit of the doubt.
Reacting to the findings, Dr Naser said he was “grateful” to the FTP committee.
Tax offences
Last year, Dr Naser was found guilty of professional misconduct over his failure to notify the Medical Council of a criminal conviction in relation to tax offences.
The GP was subsequently censured and fined €5,000 by the regulatory body.
The Palestinian-born married father of seven from Howth Road, Sutton was sentenced to 16 months in jail in June 2018 for filing incorrect tax returns for 2006 and 2007 which resulted in an underpayment of €100,000 in income tax.
Dr Naser was the subject of a high-profile public campaign following his conviction with a petition signed by over 6,000 people to have him released from prison on humanitarian grounds, while his case was also discussed on several editions of RTÉ’s Liveline.
