A doctor who had sex with a patient in an A&E toilet has been suspended for a year. 

Dr Ewere Onyekpe was initially given a six-month suspension over the incident at the Whittington Hospital on June 10, 2020 and the relationship that led up to it.

But the High Court ruled that the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service decision was “fundamentally flawed” as it did not consider the woman’s vulnerability.

A hearing in February reconsidered the case and Dr Onyekpe was suspended for one year as the panel decided he should have known the patient was vulnerable due to her medical history. 

A hearing was told that he was treating a female patient who was suffering a back pain on June 5, 2020. 

Before leaving, she gave him her number and he later contacted her, asking how she was feeling and calling her “pretty”, an employment tribunal heard. 

The patient returned to the hospital five days later complaining of chest pain and was treated by a different doctor. 

She messaged Dr Onyekpe saying she was in A&E, and the conversation then became more graphic.

The patient later visited the A&E department again, and the two had sex in the hospital toilets. 

After this the consensual relationship continued, as he visited her home and had sex with her again, before the relationship petered out.

Dr Onyekpe was later arrested on suspicion of rape following an allegation made the patient. 

He was referred to the GMC by the police and also self-referred to the GMC following his arrest on the August 3, 2020. 

Police decided to take no further action against Dr Onyekpe in regard to the rape allegation. 

In a witness statement shared in the tribunal, Dr Onyekpe said: "I appreciate that what I did was awful and that I let down myself and my family and my colleagues. 

"I also accept the because the power imbalance between me as a doctor and her of the patient, it can be perceived that I took advantage of my professional position in pursuing this brief sexual relationship, consensual though it may have been."