Portsmouth: Nurse who asked for patient's phone number suspended

A nurse found to have asked for and recorded a patient's telephone number while treating her has been suspended from the profession for nine months.

A panel found Mohamed Khdach talked of going out socially with the patient, who was in hospital after being referred with a suspected blood clot in a lung and Covid-19.

Mr Khdach, 26, was working in the A&E department of the Queen Alexandra Hospital, in Portsmouth, when the incident took place in February 2022.

He was sacked from the Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust six month later after managers found he touched a colleague's bottom without her consent in June that year.

The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) panel found that Mr Khdach told the patient that "I will show you what your ex-husband didn't", or words to that effect.

The patient said she immediately recognised his behaviour to be inappropriate and unprofessional.

She said he stood over her, handed her his phone and she felt she had "no option" but to put her number into it.

The panel said his behaviour was sexually motivated and found his explanation that the "distressed" patient had tried to call him later was "implausible".

It also found that he had touched or slapped the colleague's bottom at least once and told her: "I like the view from here."

Finding that he had said "but it's just so good" when he was told to stop, the panel said it "could only conclude that [the] behaviour was sexual in nature, arising out of [his] own immaturity and lack of boundaries".

Mr Khdach denied that he was a "sexual harasser" and said his actions were "all in a friendly manner".

The panel added that while it seemed he had concluded his behaviour with the patient was "inappropriate", he had little empathy over how he made her feel.

It concluded his insight was "developing but limited".