Radiologist who unzipped a patient’s dress and groped her breast while doing an ultrasound scan of her back is suspended for one year
- Dr Prashant Sankaye has been suspended for groping a woman at his work
- A tribunal heard he undressed the woman at a private medical centre in London
- The woman said he ‘made me feel extremely uncomfortable and anxious’
- The panel said Dr Sankaye’s actions were done in ‘pursuit of sexual gratification’
A doctor has been suspended after unzipping a patient’s dress and groping her breast ‘for sexual gratification’ while doing an ultrasound scan of her back.
Dr Prashant Sankaye, a radiologist and expert in scanning musculoskeletal (MSK) and sports injuries, was supposed to be carrying out an examination of the woman’s spine at a private centre in London.
But after unzipping her dress and unhooking her bra, he slid his hands over the shocked patient’s stomach, hips, flanks and then touched her right breast on several occasions, a misconduct hearing was told.
Dr Sankaye, who trained in Mumbai before working in the NHS and becoming head of MSK at Imperial College, London, denied groping the woman.
However, the Medical Practitioners Service Tribunal ruled his actions were entirely unnecessary and were sexually motivated. He has now been suspended for 12 months.
The hearing was told that Dr Sankaye carried out the ultrasound scan on the woman in July 2020 at the European Scanning Centre in Marylebone, London.
A tribunal found Dr Prashant Sankaye groped the woman when he was supposed to be examining her spine at the European Scanning Centre in Marlyebone, London (pictured)
After the incident, the woman – referred to only as Patient A – made a complaint in which she said the radiologist slid his hands up and down her body in a way which ‘made me feel extremely uncomfortable and anxious.’
She said: ‘He moved one hand under my dress to the front on my stomach, whilst the other hand stayed along my spine.
‘He continued the massage movement on both sides front and back and started to work his way further up. He got to the upper back and at this point I felt very awkward and uncomfortable as the hand at the front of me was between my breasts and under my bra.
‘He continued again with one hand at the front of me under my dress and one still on my back and worked his way up again.
‘When at the top of my back with one hand, the other was on my front and slightly more to my right side and was touching my right breast and moving around. I think it was at this point I commented that his hand was on my breast.’
The woman gave evidence to the hearing, held in London, in which she repeated her claims that Dr Sankaye had touched her right breast on more than one occasion without explaining what he was doing.
She added: ‘The first time his hand ended in between my breast.
‘He went up again. His left hand was more over to right side, it felt like his fingers were on my breast.
Dr Sankaye, who trained in Mumbai before working in the NHS and becoming head of MSK at Imperial College, London (pictured) denied groping the woman
‘It was not a smooth movement. His hands were having to move in order to get up the body.’
Dr Sankaye denied touching the front of Patient’s A body and her breast and claimed she must have been ‘mistaken’.
However, the tribunal dismissed his argument and noted that he would have known it was unnecessary to touch her front as ‘Dr Sankaye is an experienced clinician, with a sports medicine diploma and a reputation for considering injuries to backs’.
It stated: ‘The Tribunal has found Dr Sankaye placed his hand inside Patient A’s dress and touched the front of her body and her right breast.
‘The Tribunal does not accept this was part of a clinical examination and cannot accept there is a plausible explanation nor justification for Dr Sankaye acting in the way he did.
‘The Tribunal found that Dr Sankaye’s actions… were undertaken in pursuit of sexual gratification.’
The panel ruled that ‘a lengthy period of suspension would be the appropriate sanction given the seriousness of Dr Sankaye’s misconduct and his current level of insight into his sexually motivated conduct’.
It suspended him from the medical register for 12 months to ‘enable Dr Sankaye the opportunity to develop insight into his sexually motivated conduct’.
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