Dublin GP cleared of professional misconduct over alleged misrepresentation as Qatari embassy appointee

A medical inquiry has found a Dublin GP not guilty of professional misconduct over allegations that he conducted an unauthorised medical assessment of a psychiatric patient while representing himself as acting for the Qatari embassy.

A fitness-to-practise (FTP) committee of the Medical Council ruled that the case against Dr Bassam Naser, who operates a family practice in Sutton, was not proven.

However, the committee found Dr Naser guilty of engaging in rude, aggressive and unprofessional conduct with staff while visiting the patient at the Drogheda Department of Psychiatry in Drogheda, Co Louth, on May 20th, 2018, but said the finding did not constitute professional misconduct.

The GP had been accused of falsely claiming in a phone call to a social worker on April 30th, 2018, that he was attached to the Qatari embassy and seeking details of the medical condition of a patient at the Health Service Executive-run mental healthcare facility when he was not the individual’s family doctor and had no authority to access such information.

Brianna Parkins: Here’s some of the best life advice I’ve ever received

---

Bryan Dobson: ‘Retirement could be a terrible shock to the system – or not, who knows!’

---

The Croke Park effect: ‘It was one of the very few times I cried during the opposition anthem’

---

I spent my maternity leave in a chemo chair. Then I got a letter telling me to go back to work

---

The patient, a Qatari national, had been involuntarily detained the previous day after suffering a psychotic episode from suspected drug use.

The FTP committee also found Dr Naser not guilty of a separate charge that he had told a clinical nurse manager, Colum Butler, on May 20th, 2018 that he had been appointed by the Qatari embassy to carry out the assessment when he knew such a claim was untrue.

During a three-day inquiry held earlier this year, Dr Naser – who is commonly known as “Dr Sam” – denied misrepresenting himself to staff at the Drogheda Department of Psychiatry in relation to the patient.

In evidence, Dr Naser explained he had been contacted by the Palestinian ambassador to Ireland who had in turn been contacted by the Qatari embassy in London about the patient, whose father was a Qatari national who was anxious to find out about what had happened to his son.

He said he had been asked by the Palestinian ambassador to intervene as he spoke Arabic and had been a doctor in Ireland for 40 years. Dr Naser said he had acted out of compassion in helping the man who had cried repeatedly after arriving in Ireland.

The committee criticised his conduct on the day as well as his evidence to the inquiry but said that “by a fine margin”, while unacceptable, it did not constitute professional misconduct.

Outlining the inquiry’s other findings, the inquiry’s chairperson Paul Harkin said it was not proven beyond reasonable doubt that Dr Naser had misrepresented himself as being attached to the Qatari embassy in a phone call with a social worker.

It made a similar finding in relation to the allegation that Dr Naser had carried out a medical or psychiatric assessment of the patient on May 20th, 2018.

Reacting to the findings, Dr Naser said he was “grateful” to the FTP committee.