Dr Mahbub Hasan suspended for unwanted touching, remarks towards nurse

A doctor working at Kareena Private Hospital in Caringbah was found guilty of unsatisfactory professional conduct when he squeezed a married nurse’s bottom at work. Find out when he will be allowed to practise again.

A Kareena Private Hospital doctor has been suspended for a further three months after a tribunal ruled he squeezed the bottom of a female nurse in 2019.

The Health Care Complaints Commission prosecuted a complaint against Dr Mahbub Hasan before the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal last year.

The tribunal determined Dr Hasan made several inappropriate comments and touched her on a number of occasions, including squeezing her bottom at a birthday party at work, between February and May 2019, while employed at Kareena Private Hospital.

On October 21, 2021, the tribunal found Dr Hasan guilty of unsatisfactory professional conduct and professional misconduct, ruling his conduct was “unacceptable and breached personal boundaries”.

The case was brought back before the tribunal on March 31, this year where the HCCC sought for Dr Hasan’s suspension to be extended for a further three to six months.

The tribunal determined Dr Hasan would be suspended for three months until June 30, this year. The findings of the tribunal were published online in May.

Dr Hasan was suspended with pay on May 28, 2019 and his registration suspended on July 16, 2020. He has not worked in any other vocation since.

The tribunal heard between February 2019 and 23 May 2019 the nurse and Dr Hasan were working together in either the intensive care unit or short stay in Kareena Private Hospital.

The tribunal determined Dr Hasan told the nurse “you are so beautiful”, questioned if she was married and asked “can I be your side boyfriend?”.

He also requested her house key when she opened an ICU door with her swipe card.

The tribunal also found Dr Hasan rubbed the woman’s waist with his hand on multiple occasions, touched her feet with his and poked her with a pen on the leg, all without her consent and when people could not see.

“We find that the actions and words ... were unwelcomed and made her feel uncomfortable,” the tribunal findings said before adding the nurse was “credible and honest”.

Dr Hasan’s actions escalated when he and the nurse were wishing birthday greetings to a patient in the hospital on May 23, 2019.

The tribunal determined Dr Hasan squeezed the nurse’s buttock and she tried to swat his hand away.

“Such an action was not an accident or as a result of a bump caused by jostling around a patient’s bed or in the confined space... It was an intentional action on the part of [Dr Hasan],” the tribunal said.

The woman spoke to Dr Hasan in his room shortly after and said words to the effect, “Doctor what is this? I am a married woman and I am faithful to my marriage. This is not acceptable that you do that to me,” the findings said.

He replied, “I am sorry. It won’t happen again” but soon after told the woman’s supervisor who had just been informed of the complaint that his actions were an “accident”.

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The tribunal heard Dr Hasan and his wife migrated to Australia in 2008 and in that year he was registered as a medical practitioner.

He commenced his employment in Tasmania and then worked at Liverpool Hospital in 2010.

He has progressed his medical career through undertaking Advanced Physician Training in General and Acute Care Medicine with Geriatric Medicine.

In February 2019, Dr Hasan started working at Kareena Private Hospital.

Dr Hasan said since being suspended, he had undertaken courses about ethical and professional boundaries.

“I understand completely that there is absolutely no place in the medical profession for boundary transgression. I further understand that any boundary transgression will not be tolerated and be met with harsh but fair protective consequences. For me this has meant being suspended and effectively unemployed for almost three years,” he said to the tribunal in March.

“I have suffered enormous professional embarrassment and personal humiliation due to the complaint and the findings made against me,” adding it also affected his marriage but his wife was still supportive of him.

However, during the tribunal hearing he continued to deny the nurse’s allegations against him contrary to the findings.

The tribunal also heard that it was the second time a complaint, this time by a 28-year-old daughter of a patient, of inappropriate conduct by Dr Hasan within his workplace in 2017 had been made and established.

“That suggests to us that Dr Hasan seriously needs to address his personal problem and seek help otherwise it may be that he would find himself the subject of a further and similar complaint to that made by the young women who have been the complaining persons before both the 2017 proceeding and in the hearing before us,” the tribunal findings said.

The HCCC, in their submission to further have Dr Hasan suspended noted he failed to heed warnings about his interaction with nursing staff at the Kareena Private Hospital.

The HCCC further added Dr Hasan’s conduct warranted suspension, or cancellation of his registration, because it was “inappropriate unwanted touching” and “personal remarks” which amounted to “serious misconduct”.

Dr Hasan opposed the extended suspension instead wanting a supervision condition and mentorship.

The tribunal determined Dr Hasan’s conduct was “highly offensive and totally unacceptable” towards the nurse.

“The continued denials and ascribing of blame to others for the consequences which befell [Dr Hasan] does not augur well for his reform,” the findings said.

“It is hoped that the serious consequences for him personally, arising from the suspension of his employment imposed by Kareena Private Hospital and also the Medical Council suspension of his registration, have been sufficient to motivate a change in [him].

“However, unless he is prepared to honestly address his role in the circumstances he finds himself in, he may continue to expose himself to complaint and more importantly, expose young women in his workplaces to abhorrent and unwanted conduct by him.”

Dr Hasan had been suspended from practice for one year and nine months at the date of the March hearing and the tribunal acknowledged there was no allegation of medical incompetence made against him.

Once Dr Hasan returns to employment after June 30, he will have a supervisor and meetings, and must notify any future employer of the order of the tribunal and his previous suspension.

He also will have to pay the costs of the legal proceedings.