A hospital doctor who behaved badly during a work Christmas party has been suspended for 12 months by a U.K. medical tribunal.
The tribunal run by the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) into the case of Dr. Mark Johnson concluded on 5 November.
The MPTS found that during a party on 9 December 2022, Johnson poured beer down a junior colleague’s cleavage before licking it off. He also admitted to sending her “derogatory” and “sexually demeaning” comments about other colleagues in “inappropriate” messages sent between November 2018 and November 2019.
The MPTS said that some of the doctor’s conduct was sexually motivated and deemed sexual harassment. It noted that “acting in a sexually motivated way, whilst at a work Christmas party, towards a junior member of staff, was an abuse of Dr. Johnson’s more senior position.”
“The conduct was inherently serious, deliberate, and sexually motivated. It represented an abuse of authority within a workplace social setting,” the tribunal said, adding that erasure from the medical register would be “disproportionate” and instead decided to suspend him for 12 months.
According to a 34-page document obtained from the MPTS by AuntMinnieEurope, Johnson graduated in medicine from the University of Southampton in 1997 and then specialized in histopathology. He was appointed to his first consultant post at West Suffolk Hospital in 2013. He worked at West Suffolk Hospital for 10 years before leaving after disciplinary proceedings in 2023, which arose from events that took place during the Christmas party. In October 2023, he took up a locum post as a consultant at Royal Sussex County Hospital, and he began a "substantive consultant post" in June 2024.
A spokesperson for University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust, which is responsible for the Royal Sussex County Hospital, told the Independent newspaper, “We can confirm that this doctor is not currently working at the Trust, and that the process of formally ending his employment is starting immediately.”
Dr. Richard Goodwin, medical director of West Suffolk NHS Trust, which oversees West Suffolk Hospital, said: “We referred Dr. Johnson to the General Medical Council following an internal process, prompted by reports of potential sexual misconduct. We’re committed to eradicating sexual harassment and abuse in the workplace by promoting a culture that fosters openness and transparency, and never tolerates unwanted, harmful or inappropriate sexual behaviours.”
