Dr Mustafa Jamnagarwalla: GP at Rouse Hill Medical Centre verdict at NSW health care tribunal

A Rouse Hill GP engaged in sexually inappropriate behaviour with a 12-year-old patient and doctored records to pretend he was not consulting female patients.

A Rouse Hill GP engaged in sexually inappropriate behaviour with a young patient and doctored records to give the false impression he was not consulting female patients.

Dr Mustafa Jamnagarwalla, who worked at Rouse Hill Town Medical and Dental Centre, fronted the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal over an allegation he inappropriately touched a 12-year-old and breached a condition to not see female patients on 33 occasions.

On November 29, 2018, the young patient accompanied by her 17-year-old cousin visited Dr Jamnagarwalla to receive treatment for an ear ache and sore throat.

While examining the 12-year-old’ s ears, Dr Jamnagarwalla placed his left hand on her bare right upper thigh and brushed it down her leg. He also stared at the bare legs of the two girls, both dressed in short denim skirts.

Giving evidence, the 12-year-old described the doctor’s stare as “really, really weird,” the tribunal heard.

Rouse Hill GP Mustafa Jamnagarwalla.

She also told the tribunal she felt “intimidated” and “scared”, adding “(the doctor) made me feel so uncomfortable, like, I wanted to cry”.

Dr Jamnagarwalla told the tribunal he did not remember the appointment and said he would never place his hand on a patient’s upper thigh.

But the tribunal found the doctor engaged in “conduct of a sexual nature” with two minors in “an extremely vulnerable situation because they were on their own, with no adult present”.

The doctor breached a condition brought after this complaint by treating 29 female patients. He also mislead the tribunal — falsely stating a number of these female patients were male — and failed to keep adequate medical records.

In a statement tendered to the tribunal, Dr Jamnagarwalla said he did not intend to be misleading.

“I was careless and was rushing … I think I may have quickly scanned the patients surnames and decided the patients were males,” Dr Jamnagarwall stated.

“I also acknowledge that my medical records for (a number of these patients) are inadequate … (because) I did not record sufficient information in relation to each patient’s diagnosis and treatment.”

The tribunal found there was no record of the diagnosis or treatment of patients in some of these instances.

“The record keeping failures … involve several examples of not recording any history, examination or plan whatsoever,” tribunal documents state.

“Dr Jamnagarwalla deliberately failed to record essential information in the patient’s clinical notes to give the impression that he had no consulted the patient.”

The tribunal found Dr Jamnagarwalla guilty of unsatisfactory professional conduct and professional misconduct.

But the doctor was cleared of the allegations he tried to look up the young patient’s skirt and acted inappropriately when he placed his hand on the patient’s shaking leg (this occurred after he first touched her thigh).

The tribunal will determine protective orders following a further hearing into this matter.