'White coat terror' doctor struck off

Mr Al-Fallouji denied sexual harassment and bullying

A groping surgeon who bullied staff and made sexual advances towards students has been struck off.

Mohannad Al-Fallouji was found guilty of a string of offences spanning four years at Pilgrim Hospital in Boston, Lincolnshire.

The 51-year-old had touched nurses indecently, made sexual advances to students and reduced cancer patients to tears, the hearing was told.

The surgeon denied the gross misconduct charge but a committee of the General Medical Council (GMC) said it needed to protect the public and the reputation of the profession.

David and Goliath

Dr Al-Fallouji, who told a patient "you have cancer, I have asthma, we all have to die sometime", was found guilty of the charges after a three-week hearing in July.

The GMC committee decided on Tuesday the string of offences amounted to gross misconduct and had him struck off.

But after the hearing Dr Al-Fallouji said: "I have been persecuted for standing up to management.

You sexually harassed nurses and young female medical students

Eileen Walker, GMC

"It is like David and Goliath.

"There is no fairness at all. The GMC is adopting hard action against doctors as a knee-jerk reaction.

"Show me a patient who has suffered because of me - there isn't one.

"Nobody complained to me. Why did they wait about six years to report it?"

The surgeon, from Liversedge, West Yorkshire, was said to have made a number of inappropriate comments to staff and patients between July 1995 and May 1999.

'Walking terror'

He also wrote a flirtatious Christmas card to a young patient trying to arrange a secret meeting without her parents' knowledge.

During the earlier hearing he was branded "a walking terror in a white coat" by a colleague.

On Tuesday committee chairwoman Eileen Walker told Dr Al-Fallouji: "Your conduct fell seriously short of acceptable standards.

Dr Fallouji worked at Pilgrim Hospital

"You dishonestly wrote deliberately misleading and derogatory references for a junior colleague.

"You indecently assaulted a ward sister on two occasions.

"On a number of occasions you sexually harassed nurses and young female medical students who were under your supervision.

"At times, your manner towards patients, particularly when you were breaking bad news, was abrupt, insensitive and fell seriously below a reasonably professional standard.

"Even now, you do not fully recognise that such conduct is plainly unprofessional and unacceptable.

"As a result ... if you were permitted to resume practice there is a real possibility that you might repeat such behaviour."