'Cuddles for medicine' GP banned

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A doctor who told a pregnant patient she had a "nice arse" and told another woman that "cuddles were better than medicine" has been struck off.

Paul Hirschowitz posed a significant risk of repeating such behaviour, a General Medical Council panel ruled.

The Scarborough GP was found guilty of misconduct in his sexually-motivated behaviour towards three patients.

One patient said he commented on her bottom and rubbed his genitals at the Norwood House Surgery in June 2005.

She said he was "excited and not in complete control of himself".

Unnecessary examination

In February 2007 he saw another female patient and examined her abdomen, back and legs after she confided she might be pregnant.

However, he did this before the results of a pregnancy test she had just taken were known and also offered to perform an unnecessary internal examination.

A third patient told the panel that Dr Hirschowitz had stroked her hand and face on a number of occasions and would end every consultation with a cuddle.

She said: "He opened his arms and scooped me in. He would say 'cuddles are better than medicine, it will keep you stronger'."

The woman, who was suffering from depression, visited his surgery in March 2007 to ask him to write a reference for a house move.

At the end of the consultation he grabbed the mother-of-two and pulled her towards him.

'Sexual exploitation'

She said: "I went to stand up and he pulled me down into his lap. I was sprawled across his knee, which was a bit weird. It felt all wrong.

"Then he put his hands round me in a bear hug."

The panel ruled that erasure of the doctor's registration was the only option available as it concluded his "persisting behaviour would put patients at serious risk of harm and that conditions would therefore not protect patients".

It concluded: "His abuse of that position of trust was made especially serious as it involved the sexual exploitation of three vulnerable patients, the rights of whom he deliberately violated for his own gratification.

"Dr Hirschowitz continues to deny the allegation and appears not to have accepted that with hindsight he should have behaved differently."