A doctor who sexually touched two young female colleagues and sent them flirtatious messages has been struck off the medical register.
Dr Velmurugan Kuppuswamy was working as a consultant cardiologist at Withybush Hospital in Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, when he ‘targeted’ the women, told one she was a ‘bad girl’ and grabbed her waist.
A doctors’ tribunal found a pattern of behavior and concluded that his actions were “sexually motivated” and created “an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment”.
Hywel Dda Health Board said it was “committed to providing a safe and supportive environment” for patients and staff.
Between August and October 2021, Kuppuswamy, known as Dr Vel, sexually harassed two colleagues – known as Dr A and Dr B – and abused his position.
The tribunal’s decision report said he sent inappropriate messages to Dr A which were “overly familiar” and “vulgar”.
While attending a party in a common area of the hospital’s staff accommodation unit in September 2021, he hugged her, touched her back and squeezed her waist.
The panel heard how he grabbed her by the wrist, pulled her towards him, smiled and winked at her and told her she was a “bad girl” in response to her making a comment about smoking being bad for health.
In a witness statement to the General Medical Council (GMC), she said she “felt exposed” and his actions “felt so wrong”.
And in a statement to police, she said she tried to pull away from him and told him he was hurting her.
Despite investigations by police, no charges were brought.
At the same event, he told Dr B to “keep dancing sexy for me”, put his hand on her thigh and squeezed her near the groin.
During the party, Kuppuswamy followed a group of female classmates as they moved to a different area and watched them dance.
He also told the two women that they should use their chests as paddles while he played a game of ping pong against them at the party.
In a witness statement, Dr A said he was one of the first people Kuppuswamy hugged when he arrived at the party, adding that he “walked towards me and put his arms around my waist, wrapping around me”.
“I wouldn’t fire a consultant and I had no choice in what I responded to. I was just there and I didn’t have my arms out to him,” she said.
“Both of his hands were on my waist, squeezing. Dr. Vel’s hands were crossed on my lower back, flat on my back, quite low and I felt uncomfortable.
“I noticed that with every woman he met, he specifically went for a hug around their waist, leaving his hands on the smallest part of their waist.”
Lee Fish, who represented the General Medical Council at the hearing, told the panel that Kuppuswamy’s name had previously been removed from the medical register in January 2012 after “findings of dishonesty were made” against him.
He told the tribunal that Kuppuswamy successfully applied for reinstatement on the register in November 2020 – less than a year before the sexual harassment took place at Withybush.
“His conduct, which involved several instances of unwanted physical touching, was sexually motivated,” the tribunal concluded.
“He treated them like sex objects”
Throughout the proceedings, Kuppuswamy claimed that the allegations against him were the result of his “whistleblowing”, related to performance concerns he had raised with another doctor at the hospital.
He said that Dr A and Dr B were “confabulating” events to target him and that Dr B was an unreliable witness due to a previous traumatic experience.
But the group did not accept that the evidence it presented was consistent with these claims.
Kuppuswamy was also “reluctant to accept that there was a power differential between him and Dr A as he was only a substitute consultant”.
But in his evidence he referred to both colleagues as “girls” on several occasions and the tribunal was “satisfied that Dr A was a junior colleague and there was a power imbalance”.
The report added: “The tribunal found that calling a junior colleague ‘a perfect girlfriend’ and asking her to dance with him was in itself inappropriate because of their lack of personal relationship and because the pressure was likely to be a power imbalance.”
The panel acknowledged that the feedback provided on Kuppuswamy’s behalf “was generally very positive” and “demonstrated that he is an otherwise good doctor who is clinically competent and respected by his colleagues and patients”.
“However, given the nature of the case and the serious findings against him, the testimony regarding his clinical practice … was insufficient to demonstrate insight or remediation regarding his sexually motivated misconduct,” the report said.
An apology letter written by Kuppuswamy was also submitted to the court, “however, this letter … did not accept any blame, but rather apologized if anyone ‘misconstrued’ his actions or intentions as inappropriate or too familiar.”
Kuppuswamy has been struck off the register to which he can apply for reinstatement in five years.
He was also suspended to cover the 28 days from January 28 – the time he has to appeal the decision.
The tribunal found that Kuppuswamy “did not act with integrity” and “was satisfied [his] the conduct was a significant breach of professional boundaries and clearly fell below expected standards’.
It said Kuppuswamy “treated Dr A and Dr B as sex objects to be used for his own sexual gratification” and concluded that his conduct “was so far from the standards of conduct reasonably expected of a doctor as to amount to gross misconduct”.
“The public should trust doctors to behave with integrity, including working and interacting appropriately with junior colleagues and medical students,” it said.
The health board’s chief medical officer, Mark Henwood, said it was not policy to comment on current or former staff, but added: “We have robust policies and procedures in place to ensure the safety of both staff and patients in our care and we take our responsibility for their welfare seriously.
“We are committed to providing a safe, supportive environment where patients and staff can be confident that best practice is being followed at all times.”