The health secretary, Alan Milburn, yesterday announced an inquiry into the case of a GP found guilty of the serial sexual abuse of women patients which went on for at least eight years in spite of complaints to the health authority and a hospital where he temporarily worked.
Clifford Ayling, a GP in Folkestone, Kent, was yesterday found guilty of 13 indecent assaults on women who went to his surgery for minor problems such as coughs and colds. He was jailed for four years. Maidstone crown court heard that he carried out unnecessary internal examinations on his women patients and fondled their breasts in the pretence of looking for cancerous lumps.
A patient complained to the police as early as 1991, but the crown prosecution service decided the case was not strong enough. A second complained of abuse while Ayling, who has a gynaecology qualification, was working as a clinical assistant to the disgraced gynaecologist Rodney Ledward at the William Harvey hospital. She dropped her complaint when told that Ayling would be leaving the hospital.
The allegations grew, but the East Kent health authority which paid the GP's contract, could neither sack nor suspend him without mounting a legally watertight case against him to the cumbersome NHS tribunal. It embarked on that long procedure, but the case had to be dropped once criminal proceedings began.
The GP was arrested in 1998, but carried on working. A magistrate barred him from practising while on bail, but he got the ruling overturned at the high court, on condition he was chaperoned by a female nurse when he saw women patients.
The government has plans to abolish the NHS tribunal and will give health authorities summary powers of suspension and dismissal over the GPs they employ in April.
The inquiry will seek to see what else can be done to stop abusive doctors.
The health authority welcomed the inquiry. Jacqui Stewart, a director of the East Kent health authority, said: "We will be cooperating fully with any investigations commissioned by the Department of Health and will be examining our action to make sure the NHS, locally and nationally, learns all the lessons from the case."
Ayling, 69, was found guilty of abusing 10 patients. Not guilty verdicts were returned on a further five charges involving three more women. A further 11 counts of indecent assault against eight women were allowed to lie on file.
Judge David Croft QC said in passing sentence: "You are indeed a dirty doctor. You held your patients in contempt. What you did was wicked. These were vulnerable people who came to you for help and you used them for your own sexual gratification."
One witness, a 34-year-old woman, said Ayling gave her a breast and internal examination on most of her visits. She registered as his patient when moving to Folkestone at the end of 1995, when she was 30, and sought treatment for a cyst on one of her ovaries.
The first time she saw Ayling he told her to take off all her clothes but she was given nothing with which to cover herself. She said: "I felt uncomfortable, I thought it unusual. He then said that he normally likes to start, particularly with new patients, with a breast examination."
Another patient went to see Ayling about pins and needles in her arms - but was told to get on her hands and knees "like a dog" for a breast examination. The GP then straddled her back and examined both her breasts at the same time for at least two minutes.
