Northampton doctor suspended after arranging medical appointments on WhatsApp for a pregnant patient he met through Tinder

A doctor has been suspended from his duties after he arranged medical appointments on WhatsApp for a patient he had previously met through Tinder.

Dr Ramy Hanna was working as a doctor in obstetrics and gynaecology at Northampton General Hospital at the time of the allegations of an ‘inappropriate relationship’ in 2018.

The doctor, who qualified from Alexandria University, Egypt in 2011, has been suspended for four months after he was subject to a Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) misconduct hearing between October 5 and October 7 this year, which looked into his practice.

Allegations against Dr Hanna start from when he was called to A&E in September 2018 to assess a patient with a possible ectopic pregnancy.

The patient was someone the doctor had previously connected with on dating app, Tinder, and had ‘met for drinks’.

The tribunal heard how after being discharged, the patient thanked Dr Ramy for his care via WhatsApp, when he then gave medical advice and investigation results and arranged medical appointments for the patient.

During the next week, it was found that the pair met a handful of times and engaged in ‘kissing and cuddling’, before the patient was asked to attend the hospital again where Dr Hanna was the doctor available to examine the patient.

At this point, Dr Hanna did not disclose that he was having a personal relationship with the patient.

The tribunal also heard that Dr Hanna decided to talk to the woman about ending the relationship while she was still an in-patient on this occasion.

When the patient was readmitted just over a week later, she sent a number of messages requesting Dr Hanna to be part of her care, but he did not respond to the messages, which caused the patient to threaten to report Dr Hanna for their relationship.

The day after this threat, Dr Hanna reported the ‘inappropriate relationship’ to a senior staff member at the trust, before self-referring to the General Medical Council (GMC) five days later.

On the same day that Dr Hanna contacted the GMC, the patient also contacted the complaints department at the trust.

An investigation was then commissioned about allegations that Dr Hanna had ‘abused his professional position to pursue a sexual or improper emotional relationship with a patient,’ before the case was handed over to the MPTS.

At the tribunal Dr Hanna entirely admitted to the allegation against him and it was concluded that the doctor’s actions were ‘in pursuit’ of a romantic relationship and a future sexual relationship.

GMC’s representative at the hearing stated: “Dr Hanna had breached a number of fundamental tenets of Good Medical Practice (GMP) (2013) when he provided medical care to Patient A at a time when he was engaged in an improper relationship with her.

“Numerous WhatsApp messages between Dr Hanna and Patient A demonstrated a clear lack of professional boundaries, and also showed that there had been a number of opportunities for him to re-establish these, but he had failed to do so.

“Dr Hanna’s conduct fell seriously below the standard to be expected and was unbefitting of a medical practitioner.”

Although Dr Hanna’s representative conceded that his actions did amount to misconduct, in defence, she stated: “Dr Hanna did not pose a risk to members of the public and that he has been allowed to practice unrestricted since the events with no issues.

“Dr Hanna was truly remorseful for his actions and had apologised to the Trust and his colleagues at the Trust.

“Dr Hanna has learnt his lesson and fully understands why professional boundaries are in place and the impact any breach of them may cause.

“At that time Dr Hanna’s fitness to practice was impaired but this was no longer the case.

“A fully informed member of the public who was conversant with all of the facts and details of this case would not consider Dr Hanna’s fitness to practice impaired today.”

The tribunal took into account Dr Hanna’s admission and his good character references, but concluded that ‘a fully informed member of the public would be very concerned at Dr Hanna’s treatment of Patient A’ and that the doctor’s fitness to practice was impaired by the misconduct.

The report says: “The tribunal considered that imposing a period of suspension on Dr Hanna’s registration would send a clear message to the public and members of the profession of what is not acceptable conduct and behaviour for a doctor.”

Dr Hanna will be suspended for four months 28 days from when notice of the decision is ‘deemed to have been served upon him’, unless he lodges an appeal.

If Dr Hanna does lodge an appeal, he will remain free to practice unrestricted until the outcome of any appeal is known.

Northampton General Hospital declined to comment on the case.

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