A DOCTOR has claimed at a fitness to practise inquiry that complaints made against him by a female colleague were because she was “angry and wanted to destroy his reputation”.
Dr Onada Olajide Onada (40) faces several allegations of professional misconduct, including engaging in harassing, inappropriate or intimidating verbal, email or SMS communications with up to four female colleagues while working at University College Hospital Galway from August 2010 to January this year.
He also faces allegations of failing to respond to his pager, failing to inform the hospital in time that he would not be attending for duty and failing to take blood specimens from patients in a timely manner.
Giving evidence at the Medical Council inquiry yesterday, Dr Aisling Nee recalled how on September 1st last year, when she sought to use a computer that Dr Onada, who she did not know, was using, she noted a Google search window with the words “hourglass figures” and said he commented she had “an hourglass figure”.
Dr Nee said she later received two Facebook messages from Dr Onada, to which she did not reply. The second message stated, “beautiful heart, beautiful perfume, where do you wear them?” and included a picture of “a couple leaning towards each other”.
The inquiry heard how Dr Onada had sent an email to a fellow junior doctor in which he was critical of Dr Nee’s work.
In her evidence, Dr Nee said as she “could not tolerate inappropriate emails about [her] to [her] work colleagues”, she complained about Dr Onada’s behaviour.
Representing himself, Dr Onada asked Dr Nee to recall “what [she] was wearing” on the day of the Google search incident and if she “considered herself to have an hourglass figure”. Both queries were deemed inappropriate.
Dr Onada referred to himself in the third person throughout his questioning of Dr Nee.
Asking Dr Nee if her motivation for her letter of complaint was that she was “angry and wanted to tarnish the name of Dr Onada”, Dr Nee said she copied the letter to “the relevant consultants” and felt “it was appropriate for them to be aware of the issues [she] had”.
The hearing continues.
