Dr Emma Davies, medicolegal consultant at Medical Protection, looks at why this can happen to a GP locum and how these issues can be managed.
Medical Protection provides assistance in about 30 cases a year in the UK where doctors are involved in allegations of criminal activity arising from their day-to-day work – the most common being allegations of sexual assault or misconduct.
The term ‘sexual assault’ refers to sexual contact or behaviour that occurs without explicit consent of the victim. Sexual misconduct is uninvited or unwelcome behaviour of a sexual nature, or which can reasonably be interpreted as sexual, that causes offense, embarrassment, harm, humiliation or intimidation. Sexual misconduct includes causing offence by what we say as well as what we do.
