Quarter of Doctors Guilty of Sexual Misconduct Allowed to Keep Practising
Almost one in four doctors found guilty of sexual misconduct are allowed to return to practice after a suspension, a new review has revealed.
The study found that 24% of cases heard by the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) between August 2023 and 2024 ended in suspensions rather than doctors being struck off, despite offences including rape, sexual assault, harassment, and child-related crimes.
Consultant vascular surgeon Mei Nortley, the review’s lead author, warned the findings risk “allowing rapists, sexual predators and those who use manipulation and coercion to return as practising doctors,” adding that such decisions “bring professional standards and public confidence into question.”
Professor Vivien Lees, vice president of the Royal College of Surgeons England, echoed concerns, saying the rulings risk “leaving perpetrators in power.”
Of the 222 new MPTS cases reviewed, 55 centred on sexual misconduct. Nine of those doctors were cleared, but in the remaining 46 cases, all involving male doctors (80% in positions of authority), suspensions were often given where the General Medical Council (GMC) had argued for permanent erasure.
In 11 cases, the MPTS handed out suspensions despite the GMC recommending doctors be struck off the medical register.
Examples of lenient rulings
- Earlier this year, an acute medical consultant found guilty of rape was suspended for just 12 months, with the tribunal describing it as a “one-off event.”
- A transplant surgeon who engaged in non-consensual touching during surgery was suspended for eight months.
- Another doctor, who pursued a sexual relationship with a vulnerable patient he had groomed from the age of 14, was given a 12-month suspension after showing “insight, remediation and remorse.”
The findings, published in The Bulletin of the Royal College of Surgeons, come as growing pressure mounts on regulators to tighten disciplinary action against doctors guilty of serious sexual offences.
