Kettering General Hospital doctor struck off after sexually harassing three staff members

A Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service hearing last month heard that Dr Abdullatif Abdulhadi, who qualified as a doctor at the University of Punjab in 1977, had worked as a locum surgical registrar at John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford in 2019, where there had been complaints made by a woman of sexually inappropriate behaviour.

Then in 2021 and 2022, while working as a locum registrar at Kettering General Hospital, two more woman had come forward to formally complain about Dr Abdulhadi’s sexual harassment.

Senior members of non-clinical KGH staff gave evidence at the tribunal hearing.

The tribunal ruled that, while at John Radcliffe, Dr Abdulhadi grabbed the wrist of a member of staff and took her around the department. He also tried to hand-feed her food, despite her objections. He drank from a glass she had used and said: “People who drink from the same glass will become great friends or lovers.”

The victim was also asked by Dr Abdulhadi to visit a coastal town with him, and he ‘reassured’ her that he ‘wouldn’t do anything untoward.’

He also pulled her into a hug and kissed her neck instead of shaking the hand she had stretched out to him during on incident.

The tribunal found he also phoned her on multiple occasions.

In 2021 and 2022, while he was working at Kettering General Hospital, Dr Abdulhadi targeted a female member of staff and sent her inappropriate emails, calling her ‘darling’. One of his messages read: ‘Can I make your boyfriend jealous’?

He sent her WhatsApps reading: ‘You deserve all good things in life. Have a nice sleep and sweet dreams’ and ‘missing you’, despite only briefly knowing her in a professional environment.

Another KGH staff member said Dr Abdulhadi had sent her a Christmas card saying ‘to someone special with love’ and had attempted to video call her late at night.

He also tried to force her to eat food he had brought in for her by telling her that her multiple refusals to try it had upset him. He sent her a WhatsApp saying ‘warm cuddles and kisses especially for you’.

Tribunal members ruled that Dr Abdulhadi’s actions toward all three women were sexually motivated.

Two more members of staff came forward to say that the doctor had acted in an aggressive and intimidatory manner toward them. One of the allegations was dismissed, but the panel heard from the second who said that he had shouted at her.

She said: “’I don’t want to have to do something stupid, and hurt someone here.’ These are the exact words I recall him using. I am not easily intimidated, but when he said this to me my blood ran cold.

"His behaviour seemed quite erratic and out of sorts compared to what I would expect from a medical professional

"I was also very concerned for my own safety at that point, as well as the safety of my colleagues in the building. I considered the possibility that Dr Abdulhadi could lash out against me or another staff member."

Dr Abdulhadi did not give evidence to the tribunal and did not attend. He did send a letter to the General Medical Council in 2022 stating that, as a result of his criticisms of patient care at the hospital, and as a result of discrimination, he had been victim of a ‘witch-hunt’

The Tribunal could find no evidence to support this assertion.

Members ruled that Dr Abdulhadi had sexually harassed his junior colleagues and that he had ‘little or no insight’ into the impact of his behaviour. They determined his name be struck from the medical register.