Lancaster-based doctor who said he 'didn't give a ****' about patients is struck off

Dr Alexandru Boanca qualified in 2006 in Romania and obtained full registration from the General Medical Council in March 2014. He was placed in the Specialist Register for General Surgery from February 2018 and at the time of the events, was practising at various locations including the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust (UHMBT).

Concerns about his conduct were first raised with the GMC in November 2021. The Medical Practitioner Tribunal Service (MPTS) heard allegations that on a number of occasions between May 30 2019 and February 10, 2021, whilst at work, Dr Boanca behaved inappropriately towards colleagues “causing them to feel variously threatened, upset and shocked”. It was further alleged that, between August 13, 2021 and March 21, 2024, Dr Boanca behaved in an “abusive and offensive manner towards staff at four locum agencies and staff at the GMC, and that in two instances Dr Boanca’s conduct was motivated by racial hostility.

The tribunal heard evidence from several of Dr Boanca’s former collagues and saw evidence of emails, text messages and Whatsapp messages. They contain various expletives, sexual slurs, and racist language. Dr Boanca’s argument that they were inaccurate records was dismissed.

In testimony, an Advanced Nurse Practitioner for the Pain Management Service at UHMBT told the tribunal how Dr Boanca had made a shocking statement about patients. She said: “In 37 years I have never heard a doctor saying, ‘I don’t give a f*** about patients’, and it stayed with me”. The tribunal found that on the balance of probabilities, he had shouted and said the words alleged.

The tribunal also found proved allegations that Dr Boanca made a hospital administrator feel threatened, mocked colleagues and laughed during serious discussions, “verbally attacked” a workforce advisor on a phone call, left a clinical services manager ‘shocked’ and ‘shaken’ by his behaviour in a meeting and then called the same woman a “f***ing slut” on the phone.

She said: “I couldn’t say anything, he was just screaming it down the phone. I was feeling shocked...nobody has ever spoken to me like that. I am a tough cookie, and I have a lot of resilience. This is different. This wasn’t about me as a manager. It is about me as a human being. Nobody should be expected to receive this kind of language over the phone.”

Left distraught

The tribunal also heard that a GMC Investigation Officer was left “distraught” after dealing with Dr Boanca and had to compose himself for 15 minutes immediately after a phone call, and an agency worker was so upset by the “ethnically specific offensive terms communicated by Dr Boanca that the company gave him time off to recover.

During his cross-examination of the witnesses Dr Boanca suggested that his behaviour in the context of him being stressed or frustrated was entirely reasonable and that they had failed to consider that he was facing difficulties or to empathise with him.

Decision

The Tribunal was of the opinion that Dr Boanca’s language, tone, and manner in his interactions, as found proved, “were anything but respectful or polite and fell well below the standards expected of a registered doctor.”

The Tribunal noted that there was evidence to demonstrate that Dr Boanca had been given feedback about his behaviour by the Trust at various times but that this did not appear to have changed or curtailed his behaviour. Members concluded: “He does not seem to accept that his behaviour was highly inappropriate and appears to feel entitled to act in the way that he did and, in the absence of any evidence of insight or remediation, the risk of repetition remains high.”

The Tribunal found that his behaviour and attitude had the potential to bring the profession into disrepute and determined that Dr Boanca’s fitness to practise is impaired by reason of misconduct.

He was erased from the GMC register immediately.