Medical inquiry told ‘someone off street’ would do a better job

Colleagues were so concerned about the clinical abilities of a doctor at University Hospital Galway that they questioned whether he was actually a registered medical practitioner, a disciplinary inquiry has heard.

There were also concerns over whether Dr. Omar Hassan Khalafalla Mohamed knew basic protocols regarding suspected child abuse cases, while one senior colleague said Dr. Hassan’s level of competence was so low that ‘someone off the street’ would do a better job than he did.

BY LIZ FARSACI

Dr. Hassan has been up before an ongoing fitness to practice inquiry taking place at the Medical Council headquarters in Dublin, which began on January 4 and is expected to continue through to January 18.

He faces allegations of poor professional performance and professional misconduct in relation to a number of events that occurred and medical care he provided while working at University Hospital Galway, Mayo General Hospital and the Midlands Regional Hospital Portlaoise.

Dr. Hassan, whose medical registration was suspended since March 2015, denies the allegations.

Dr. Hassan was employed as an orthopaedic Senior House Officer at Galway from January 13, 2014, for six months. However, he was placed on administrative leave on February 21, 2014, following concerns from colleagues over patient safety.

Orthopaedic consultant Mutaz Jadaan, who worked with Dr. Hassan at UHG, expressed concerns that Dr. Hassan seemingly left a young child with a single arm fracture in A&E for two to three hours.

When Mr. Jadaan learned of the delay, he stressed to Dr. Hassan the importance of assessing children straight away, so that a non-accidental injury – a symptom of possible child abuse – could be ruled out. This is especially important when a child presents with a single fracture.

“He had no knowledge of the importance of ruling it out,” Mr. Jadaan told the inquiry on Wednesday.

Early on in a doctor’s training ‘it is drilled into you’ that when dealing with children, a doctor needs to rule out non-accidental injuries, Mr. Jadaan said.

Dr. Jadaan said he would be very worried if a senior house officer, such as Dr. Hassan, was not aware of the importance of such issues, as the implications of missing a non-accidental injury in a child can be ‘catastrophic’.

Dr. Hassan, who is representing himself, told the inquiry that he did not recall the exact details of the conversation with Mr. Jadaan, and that he knew what an NAI was.

Dr. Hassan implied that perhaps the young child was a ‘fake’ patient, although he did not elaborate on this matter. When asked for his thoughts on this claim, Mr. Jadaan said the claim ‘is wrong, to say the least’.

Consultant orthopaedic surgeon Aiden Devitt, who worked at UHG while Dr. Hassan was there, told the inquiry that Dr. Hassan was taken off unsupervised duty after his first weekend on call.

Mr. Devitt said Dr. Hassan, originally from Sudan, demonstrated a lack of basic medical knowledge expected of an SHO, as well as basic hospital protocols.

During Dr. Hassan’s first week at Galway, a number of colleagues raised concerns regarding Dr. Hassan’s clinical abilities.

Mr. Devitt told Dr. Hassan at the inquiry: “I got the strong sense you genuinely did not understand how basic your deficiencies were.”

However, Mr. Devitt told the inquiry he was more concerned about Dr. Hassan’s apparent unwillingness to learn from others, and his seeming inability to understand the adverse consequences that his lack of knowledge could have on patients.

“The fact is, you didn’t seem to accept that you need to know those things and knowing those things is [essential] for patient safety on the ward,” Mr. Devitt told Dr. Hassan on Tuesday.

“I don’t think you know what it means to be a doctor.”

Mr. Devitt said that, after their first weekend working with Dr. Hassan, two colleagues checked whether he was actually a registered medical doctor because ‘you were so far off the scale in terms of your competencies’.

“If you pulled someone off the street they would make a better fist of it than you did,” said Mr Devitt.

Dr Hassan said that a number of events described by Mr Devitt did not occur as the consultant described them, and that he disputed a number of Mr Devitt’s claims.

Consultant John McCabe, an orthopaedic and trauma surgeon at University Hospital Galway, had earlier told the inquiry of a number of concerns that were raised about Dr. Hassan.

He said that, after Dr. Hassan’s first night on call, two colleagues were so concerned about his apparent lack of clinical abilities that they looked on the Irish medical register to confirm whether Dr Hassan was actually a registered doctor.

In February 2014, the decision was made to take Dr. Hassan off of all clinical duties. As he deliberated on this decision, Mr. McCabe said he ‘could find nobody in nursing or medicine who could vouch for [Dr. Hassan]’.

Mr. McCabe said he ‘would have absolute, serious concerns’ about Dr. Hassan working in another hospital.

Edel Kelly, clinical nurse manager in the Trauma Orthopaedic Ward at UHG, revealed that, in one instance, Dr. Hassan was slow to respond when he was alerted to a collapsed female patient, who was not responding verbally or moving her limbs.

She said she had to twice go to the doctor’s area, where Dr. Hassan was, to ask him to assist her.

Dr. Hassan said he did not recall that.

Ms Kelly said she was concerned because she thought ‘the urgency of the situation failed to be appreciated’ by Dr. Hassan.

She said that when he did come to see the patient – who had had hip surgery – he stood in the doorway and asked the patient whether she had pain in her hip.

As the patient was unresponsive at the time, Ms. Kelly felt that this was not the most appropriate question.