A former paediatric surgeon at Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital in Crumlin faces 14 allegations of professional misconduct or poor professional performance at a Medical Council fitness to practise inquiry.
Among the allegations faced by Dr Mihai Anton, from Romania, are that he obtained parental consent for the wrong procedure on a patient. It is alleged Dr Anton did not know how to scrub up properly for theatre and that he had difficulty putting on gloves.
It is alleged he had left work without permission and took lunch breaks for long periods when common practice was to take breaks of less than half an hour.
It is also alleged he was unable to write clinical notes on patients’ charts and that did not understand the nature of tests he was asked to order.
Dr Anton failed to attend this morning.
In correspondence read to the inquiry, Dr Anton said he had “nothing to declare about my activities in Ireland” and added he felt “harassed” and would “never return to Ireland”.
Barrister Rory Mulcahy for the inquiry said Dr Anton applied for the role in 2012 and was appointed following a telephone interview in January. Dr Anton said he had six years clinical experience in Romania. He had supplied the required paperwork and references.
Dr Anton started work on January 14th 2013 and was suspended on January 24th. A complaint was made about Dr Anton to the Medical Council on January 28th.
HR Manager at Crumlin Hospital Joan Troy told the inquiry it was rare to do a telephone interview and that they now carry out interviews through Skype where “there is a visual interface with the interview panel and candidate”.
Ms Troy said Dr Anton was given two half days of induction and there was no special induction for doctors from overseas or for whom English wasn’t their first language.
Dr Suzanne McMahon who gave evidence through video link said she expected someone with six years’ experience to be able to carry out simple tasks.
When asked how she would rate Dr Anton as a surgical senior house officer on a scale of one to ten, she replied “zero” and added that he was the “worst” senior house officer she had ever worked with.
Dr McMahon told the inquiry that there were communication issues with him and that she had to point to her mouth or to her arm to explain how medicines should be administered.
She said Dr Anton had difficulty prescribing paracetamol and that it was something even a lay or non-medical person could do.
She told the inquiry that he had obtained parental consent for an incorrect procedure for a patient when he should have known it was not the correct way to proceed.
The inquiry heard Dr Anton had received a score of six out of ten in his telephone interview and four out of ten for “suitability”.
Mr Brice Antao, consultant paediatric surgeon said he expected someone with six years’ experience to have no difficulty carrying out tasks that medical students know.
Mr Antao said Dr Anton did not seem to know how to scrub up properly and that he had contaminated the sterile field they had worked in by touching the surgical gloves with his hand.
Mr Antao said Dr Anton has contaminated his gown by touching it, despite being told not to do so. He also said that Dr Anton continued to hold Trocars during a procedure and failed to let go of a retractor despite being asked to do so on more than one occasion.
Giving expert evidence today for the Medical Council inquiry, Robert Wheeler, consultant neonatal and paediatric surgeon at the University of Southampton, said differences between health systems in Romania and Ireland may have cause the difficulties.
Dr Wheeler said there are several ways to put on a gown and gloves for surgery and asked if Dr Anton had been taught how to put them on in the correct way in Crumlin.
Dr Wheeler said “a person applying for a job in Ireland should be prepared to work in Ireland”.
It is alleged that when Dr Anton was asked to order a kidney function, urea and electrolytes test for patient, he did not understand what to do despite the process having been explained to him on more than one occasion.
He added that it was “impossible to believe” that someone from Romania did not know how to carry out the “ubiquitous” test.
Crumlin Hospital released a statement today to say no patient safety issues arose because of the “close supervision” of Dr Anton.
Dr Wheeler agreed that language difficulties and communication issues Dr Anton had experienced lead to some of the allegations that had arisen: “People who don’t know much of a foreign language, don’t say many other words apart from yes or no,” said Dr Wheeler.
The inquiry is scheduled to run for the next three days.