Doctor suspended for relationship with teenager who was former patient

Credit: Andrew Gustar (Creative Commons Licence)

By Daniel Pye

A doctor who began a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old years after first meeting her as a patient at a children’s hospital has been suspended for 12 months.

Dr Cian Hughes met the patient in 2011 when he was a fourth-year medical student at the University of Bristol.

The girl, known as Patient A, was 13 years old when Dr Hughes met her at Bristol Royal Hospital for Children (pictured above), the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service panel heard.

Although their relationship did not become sexual until she was 17, the tribunal was “concerned by the significant age gap” which created “an imbalance of power”.

The tribunal heard Dr Hughes met the patient when observing a surgical procedure.

After she asked Dr Hughes to forward her X-rays to her, they exchanged emails between April 2011 and December 2013, which became more frequent.

They met again in October 2014 when Dr Hughes was working as a surgical trainee, the tribunal heard.

Shortly afterwards, Dr Hughes, who works in AI health research in Ireland, asked if she was interested in a romantic relationship. They began a sexual relationship in 2015.

They saw each other regularly until June 2015, and on some occasions in 2016.

In June 2020, Patient A reported the matter to the police, but the investigation was closed with no charges against Dr Hughes.

Speaking on behalf of the General Medical Council, Colette Renton said that the patient’s age “has been identified as a known aspect of her vulnerability” and that Dr Hughes “became a source of guidance”.

The tribunal heard that she had been impacted by the relationship, stating that she now had a "distrust of authority figures, medical professionals and medical appointments" and difficulty communicating her wishes, as well as a "general mistrust of men" outside her family.

Representing Dr Hughes, Rebecca Harris said he accepted the facts in the case amounted to serious misconduct.

She said in the period between April 2011 and December 2013, “there can be no suggestion” that he selected the patient as someone he wanted to pursue a relationship with.

Ms Harris said the emails “came from a good place and were well intended”. She accepted that he failed to maintain professional boundaries although called his behaviour in this period “at the lower end of the spectrum of seriousness”.

From October 2014 onwards, Dr Hughes got the guidance “very wrong and did so in circumstances where he wrongly persuaded himself the relationship was admitted”, Ms Harris said.

She submitted that while Dr Hughes “accepted absolutely that there was an imbalance of power in the relationship before it went sour, it was a very loving relationship which had developed quickly online”.

Dr Hughes “does not face any allegation that he coerced or pressured Patient A into a relationship or any sexual activity within that relationship”, she said.

Ms Harris called Dr Hughes a “very young, naïve, inexperienced, newly qualified, emotionally immature doctor who got it very wrong indeed” and that since then he has “developed exceptional insight into the misconduct in this case”.

The tribunal panel said there were "no patient safety concerns in this case and that the risk of repetition was low".

But the fact Patient A was 17 when the romantic and sexual relationship began, the power imbalance caused by Dr Hughes’ position and age difference, and that he was aware that the relationship breached guidelines all “significantly increased the seriousness of the misconduct”, the panel concluded.

The tribunal found that despite his “significant” remediation “it is necessary to mark the misconduct with a finding of impaired fitness to practise, otherwise public confidence in the profession and the upholding of proper professional standards would be undermined”.

A University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust spokesperson said: “Patient safety is our top priority, and inappropriate behaviour of any kind will not be tolerated.

“We are proud to support the education of future NHS colleagues and are confident in the work of our academic partners to prepare their students for the high level of responsibility and privilege of training in a hospital.

“We would always encourage anyone, patient or colleague, to come forward if they are subjected to, or aware of, any misconduct or inappropriate behaviour. You will be listened to, and we will take swift and decisive action."

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