A medic rapped for letting colleagues see images of naked patients at a staff leaving do will face investigation about allegedly sexually-motivated "inappropriate behaviour". Dr Christopher Valentine, 60, is alleged to have "behaved inappropriately towards six patients" between May 2017 and March 2018 by "taking photographs and making inappropriate and untrue statements during clinical examinations".
A tribunal into his fitness to practise as a doctor is set to consider allegations the specialist's actions during these consultations at a sexual health clinic in Dunoon, Argyll and Bute, were "not clinically indicated, dishonest and sexually motivated". Furthermore, it is alleged Dr Valentine "failed to make an adequate record of the consultations".
Dr Valentine, an expert in HIV and sexual health medicine who qualified at Leeds University in 1986, has been investigated on two occasions previously. Hearings before an expert panel at the Medical Practitioners' Tribunal Service (MPTS) in Manchester are expected to last until November 4 and sanctions include being struck off, after being investigated by the General Medical Council.
A previous tribunal heard that in 2002 he had taken photographs of the genitalia of 12 patients - men and women - which he said were for "educational purposes". This resulted in him being ordered before the GMC in 2006 where he was warned his actions were "inappropriate" and breached patients' privacy and dignity - but the disciplinary panel said it did not amount to serious misconduct.
The MPTS service was founded in 2012, following the recommendations of the Shipman Inquiry, which called for the creation of a fitness to practise adjudication body, which would be independent of the GMC. In 2015, Dr Valentine appeared at an MPTS tribunal for the first time after concerns were raised he had taken and stored photographs of patients on personal devices, including his home computer, without their consent.
At the time, Dr Valentine had been working three days a week as a medical officer with the Glasgow Addiction Services (GAS) unit of NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, with the rest of his time spent in private occupational health clinics. The tribunal heard during a staff night out in April 2013, two colleagues found a picture of a semi-naked man's groin on his iPod Touch.
Dr Valentine said it showed a patient's heroin injection site, and he had kept the image for "teaching purposes". The discovery prompted an internal investigation into Dr Valentine's photographing of patients at the addiction service, with a police probe also launched - although no charges were brought.
At the subsequent MPTS tribunal in 2015, Dr Valentine admitted that he had used his personal iPod to take around 53 photos of at least two GAS patients between January 2012 and April 2013. The tribunal heard that some of these photographs - which were mainly images of drug injection sites on various parts of the body - had been taken without "adequate consent", and that some were later transferred from his iPod onto his home computer. In one case, a female patient's face was visible, making her identifiable.
The tribunal found he allowed two nurse colleagues to view the images on his phone, without any clinical reason or academic purpose for doing so, at a leaving party dinner in a restaurant. One of the nurses had been browsing the picture gallery in Dr Valentine's iPod, looking at images of his cats and a pet goat he kept in a smallholding, when she came across the half-naked man.
She told the tribunal she had been so shocked that she drew a "sharp intake of breath", which attracted Dr Valentine's attention - at which point he reassured her it was an injection site image. In its determination on the case, the MPTS panel told Dr Valentine it "accepted many of your explanations for why you took the photographs (e.g. potentially for teaching purposes) and there is no suggestion that the photographs were in any way for an improper purpose".
Dr Valentine avoided suspension, and was instead subjected to a 36-month supervision order. He went on to work for an occupational healthcare provider, evaluating and advising patients and their employers on fitness for work.
In April 2018, a MPTS review panel revoked the supervision order, stating that Dr Valentine "now fully appreciates the gravity of his offence" and that "there was no evidence that he had reoffended".
Don't miss the latest news from around Scotland and beyond - Sign up to our daily newsletter here.
READ NEXT:
-
Young mum living below Da Vinci rapist Robert Greens left terrified after angry mob attack home
- Terrified Scots boy 'thinks he's dying' as head tumour bleeds for hours on end
- Meghan Markle gave four-word response to King Charles' kind wedding day gesture, new book claims
- DWP urges people of State Pension age to claim Pension Credit before December to qualify for an extra £324
- Art fans baffled as 150-year-old painting shows 'time traveller holding iPhone'
