Plastic surgeon could be struck off after disciplinary panel found he had behaved inappropriately
Plastic surgeon Mohammad Ali Jawad could be struck off after a disciplinary panel found he had behaved inappropriately by trying to make a patient dance to Julio Iglesias with him during a consultation.
The surgeon, who treated acid attack victim Katie Piper, drank vodka with a female patient at his practice in Harley Street in what a tribunal said was a “deplorable” breach of his responsibilities.
The 56-year-old surgeon reportedly also asked the woman, known as “Patient A”, “Do you see me as a man or a surgeon?” during a consultation in October 2012.
The woman, a Polish interpreter who wanted Jawad to fix her facial scarring, ran away from the Harley Street surgery and was later found to have bruising to her arms after being grabbed by the doctor, it is alleged.
Jawad achieved international acclaim and television stardom after treating Miss Piper because of his use of artificial skin and ground-breaking operations to restore her face and, until last year, was a trustee of The Katie Piper Foundation.
As well as treating Miss Piper, Jawad featured in Oscar-winning documentary Saving Face for his efforts to help female victims of acid attacks in Pakistan.
Panel chairman David Kyle said: “Although Dr Jawad maintains that this was the only music on his iPhone, and although there is a dispute over how he came to play it, the panel has found that he chose to play music of a nature conducive to his subsequent request to Patient A to dance with him.
“It is the drinking of alcohol that is at the heart of the matter and that the drink he consumed disinhibited Dr Jawad to the point of behaving in a sexually motivated way.
“Although Dr Jawad has expressed regret about the event, there has been no notable expression of remorse towards Patient A. The Panel considers that his principle regret is for the consequences and the impact on him.
“The panel is of the view that Dr Jawad’s actions in consuming alcohol, playing music that was not clinically justified, grabbing Patient A’s arms and lifting her out of her chair and asking her the ‘man or surgeon’ question, significantly crossed the boundaries of the doctor-patient relationship and clearly breached the guidelines as set out above.
“The panel is in no doubt that fellow professionals would regard them to be deplorable.”
The surgeon’s fate will be decided at a further hearing this month. He was cleared of allegations he massaged the patient’s neck and touched her breast. He is now believed to be living and working in Pakistan.
