Doctor struck off for kicking care home resident in rubber glove row
Doctor struck off for kicking West Runton care home resident in rubber glove row
Steve Downes Wednesday, June 29, 2011
9.51 AM
A doctor who kicked an autism sufferer on the backside in Norfolk in a row over a pair of rubber gloves has been struck off.
Polish national Dr Robert Bartosik, 47, hit out at the patient following the argument at Treehaven residential home in West Runton.
A General Medical Council fitness to practise panel ruled his actions against the male resident in his 30s were “unacceptable”.
It also found him guilty of deficient professional performance at various NHS trusts throughout the UK.
The panel agreed with a number of his employers that his clinical skills and knowledge were poor, as were his communication and language abilities.
The doctor was said to have ignored advice from colleagues when he tried to take the gloves from the kitchen of a bungalow at the Treehaven home for people with autism spectrum disorders. The resident, who has Asperger’s Syndrome, began launching missiles at Dr Bartosik, who retaliated with the kick.
The panel noted: “As a professional person Dr Bartosik should have dealt with the situation in a different way and not have retaliated by kicking the patient. The panel is of the view that his actions were out with the boundaries of acceptability and that the public and profession would deem it to be unacceptable.”
Dr Bartosik, who was a support worker at the time of the incident in March 2007, denied the allegation and claimed a witness was lying. He did not attend the hearing in Manchester.
Dr Bartosik later worked in 2008 as a locum senior house officer at Dykebar Hospital in Paisley, Scotland, and at Highbury Hospital in Bulwell, Nottinghamshire, and as a locum psychiatry trainee at the Northern General Hospital in Sheffield. All three hospitals raised serious concerns about his ability and professionalism.
The panel concluded: “ The panel considers that Dr Bartosik constitutes a potential risk to patients. The panel has no evidence that he has made any effort to remediate his deficiencies or indeed to keep his medical knowledge or skills up to date.”
