A doctor has been disciplined for pretending to strangle a nurse with an apron at a hospital ruled to have failed a teen patient who hanged herself.
Just weeks after the insensitive prank, the Priory-owned clinic was fined £300,000 over the suicide of 14-year-old Amy El-Keria.
A tribunal into the doctor’s actions heard how Ruvini Senasinghe had put a pinny around a nurse’s neck and shouted: “I am going to strangle you.”
The nurse later told police: “I leaned back towards another member of staff and said, ‘Dr Senasinghe, I’m still hurting from what you did to me earlier… please can you stop’.
“I was worried she was going to hurt me again. I don’t recall her words, she just kept yelling.”
The doctor denied fooling around but was warned over her conduct by the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service. She no longer works for the Priory.
A month later, the mental health clinic, at Ticehurst House, East Sussex, was fined £300,000 over the death of Amy, who was found in her room with a ligature around her neck in 2012. Staff had failed to make the room safe or correctly observe her, despite two previous suicide attempts.
The case involving Dr Senasinghe was one of more than 100 we found where doctors were allowed to keep practising after receiving warnings for serious issues.
One had tried to kiss a patient, while another attacked a police officer while drunk. Others improperly accessed confidential records, self-prescribed medication and even vandalised colleagues’ cars. There were also failures in care.
Dr Jenny Vaughan, of the Doctors’ Association UK, said the vast majority of staff were “diligent and caring”.
She added: “There are over 123,000 doctors working in the NHS in England alone – more than 1,000 times as many as are mentioned here.
“Doctors are in a privileged position. Very few abuse it.”
A spokesman for the Priory said it would be inappropriate to comment as Dr Senasinghe had not worked for them since 2019.
The Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service said: “Our tribunals take decisions to ensure the public is protected. A range of options are available.”
