Family doctors may use chaperones

Family doctors may have to be chaperoned in future when carrying out intimate examinations of women.

Having another woman present in the consulting room is likely to be mandatory following the scandal of GP Clifford Ayling.

Ayling is claimed to have sexually molested hundreds of women over a period of more than 30 years.

The 72-year-old slipped through the net when health chiefs dismissed claims of abuse by some patients.

But he was finally jailed for four years in December 2000 on 13 counts of indecent assault.

He has now been released on licence but barred from returning to Folkstone, Kent, where he practised. The call for chaperones will be made by the report of an official inquiry ordered into the Ayling case by the Department of Health.

It is now with Health Secretary John Reid and is due to be published next month.

The inquiry was set up to discover how Ayling got away with his abuse for so long and to look at ways of preventing such cases happening again.

A doctor advising the inquiry, who has seen a draft report of the findings, said: 'Chaperones will be mandatory.

'If a doctor is found not to have used one for good reason it could result in him or her being struck

off.' The inquiry is expected to say that chaperones must be medically qualified so they can judge whether examinations are appropriate to the described symptoms and performed properly. They should also be able to stop examinations if they feel it necessary.

At present, the use of chaperones is voluntary but General Medical Council guidance says doctors should use one to protect themselves from false allegations which might be difficult to refute.

Many doctors fail to use them, however, either because one is not available or they simply forget.

Only a small minority use chaperones, despite the risk doctors run if an accusation is made. In such situations, a woman's word is often believed against a doctor's protestations of innocence.

One doctor said: 'A chaperone is there to protect the patient and the doctor and I never do an intimate examination without one. You run huge risks without a chaperone. Your actions might be quite innocent, but without a chaperone there you can run into serious problems.'

The idea has been generally welcomed by doctors and nurses, but there is concern over the proposal that the chaperone should be a practice nurse or someone else who is medically qualified. Practice nurses' leaders said the extra work would put a strain on their members, who are already over-worked.

They believe the job does not have to be done by a qualified medical person.

Sara Richards of the Practice Nurses Association said: 'I just think it has to be a woman, although a healthcare assistant, who has worked with nurses, might be suitable.'