Royal Darwin Hospital gynaecologist allegedly made ‘suggestive’ comments to female patient

A ROYAL Darwin Hospital gynaecologist allegedly made “suggestive” comments to a patient after he had medically examined her vagina, and later phoned her to ask her out to dinner

An RDH gynaecologist allegedly made ‘suggestive’ comments to a patient after he had medically examined her and later phoned to ask her out to dinner

A ROYAL Darwin Hospital gynaecologist allegedly made “suggestive” comments to a patient after he had medically examined her vagina, and later phoned her to ask her out to dinner.

Northern Territory Civil and Administrative Tribunal records, released to the NT News, show Dr Bhupendra Nath Khara admits he told his patient, among other things, that she was “petite and pretty” during a consultation in 2016.

Dr Khara’s lawyers have asked the tribunal to rule that his unprofessional conduct was “at the lower end of the scale” and that he should be dealt with by an “appropriately worded reprimand”.

The tribunal records also show the foreign-trained doctor admits to telling the patient that he “liked sex but that he is not interested in a relationship”.

Dr Khara, who is now based in Victoria, admits he failed to “maintain professional boundaries”, but is set to argue at NTCAT his comments were not “suggestive” or “irrelevant” to the consultation and “must be considered in context”.

Dr Khara denies the Medical Board of Australia’s allegation he breached code of conduct rules dealing with sexual boundaries.

Dr Khara is registered to practise unrestricted and unsupervised, according to the medical regulator AHPRA.

The tribunal records further show Dr Khara admits he called the woman four days after the consultation and asked: “How is the pretty girl doing?”

Dr Khara then asked the woman to his house for dinner, which she declined.

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The woman made a complaint about Dr Khara to the hospital’s patient advocate after the gynaecologist phoned her to invite her to dinner.

The woman’s complaint, which dates back to April 2016, was in turn sent to the Health Department’s Chief Medical Officer, who lodged a mandatory complaint with AHPRA.

Dr Khara, who was trained in Calcutta, “ceased work” at the hospital the day after the woman rebuffed his dinner invitation.

The NT News understands he has since been employed in Wodonga.

The clinic he was associated with did not respond to calls on Thursday.

Originally published as Royal Darwin Hospital gynaecologist allegedly made ‘suggestive’ comments to female patient