A Sydney GP who was found by a tribunal to have molested a teenage patient seeking treatment for an eating disorder, and later blamed a barrage of text messages to her on his wife, has failed in his bid to return to medical practice.
Hazem Chahoud, 64, has been barred from working as a doctor for at least another year after a tribunal found he'd made 'physical sexual advances' towards a young patient inside his consultation room in 2018.
The doctor was working at a Campbelltown medical centre southwest of Sydney at the time.
While fronting the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal earlier this year, Chahoud asked the panel to reinstate his medical registration and admitted he had made a 'serious failure of judgment'.
'More importantly, I have spent this time honestly examining how I reached this point. I now understand that good intentions were never enough,' he said in his opening submission.
'I allowed a professional relationship to become personal. When I was afraid of the consequences, I chose concealment over honesty, and I involved my wife in that concealment.'
The tribunal heard the patient, who was suffering from bulimia, first met Chahoud in a consultation in June 2018, when he provided her with his personal contact details and home address. She was 17 years old at the time.
In their final consultation in September that year, the tribunal found Chahoud kissed the patient on the face, moved his hand down her back below her bra strap, hugged her and moved his hand up her thigh, failing to stop when she asked him to.
Sydney GP Hazem Chahoud has been barred from practicing medicine after a tribunal found he made sexual advances towards a teenage patient in his consultation room
A tribunal heard the girl, who was suffering from bulimia, disclosed that she had been kissed and touched by Chahoud (stock image)
In the days after, he texted her multiple times from his personal mobile phone, with one of the texts concluding with 'love heart' emojis, the tribunal was told.
The tribunal heard that, shortly after the incident, the patient made a complaint about Chahoud's behaviour.
He subsequently attended a hearing before the Medical Council of New South Wales and denied the allegations, telling the delegates his wife had sent the text messages on his phone.
That claim was supported by a signed statement from his wife, and later from his former solicitor.
'Mrs Chahoud admitted she sent all text messages and the reasons she did so,' Chahoud told the Health Care Complaints Commission in 2020.
The tribunal heard Chahoud continued to deny culpability until the Commission provided him with Vodafone telephone records and location data showing the messages were sent from his practice rooms.
His medical registration was cancelled in 2022 after a previous tribunal found Chahoud had engaged in the 'most serious' misconduct.
He told that tribunal the girl had kissed him first, a claim the tribunal later found to be untrue.
Chahoud told the Daily Mail it hasn't been 'easy' since his registration was cancelled
He also agreed that he'd falsely told the Medical Council that his wife had sent the text messages.
'At that moment I was feeling hopeless and helpless. I thought I had lost my children's future. That is why I said that,' he told the tribunal.
In their findings, the 2022 tribunal concluded that Chahoud had fabricated evidence 'to avoid damage to his career, his income or the consequences of his behaviour upon his family.'
The tribunal added: 'That fabrication we find went to the extent of having his wife provide a false statement which he intended to use and did use in a proceeding before the Medical Council where he knew he was required to be truthful.'
Similar concerns were raised by the panel considering his latest reinstatement application less than two months ago.
They described Chahoud as an 'unreliable historian' and dismissed his application, ordering him to pay for the Commission's costs.
'Even though the Practitioner has achieved improvement in his physical and mental health, to date, he has demonstrated little insight into his behaviour,' they said in a judgment handed down on September 17.
'He failed to disclose his persistent lying to his psychologist. He has made no attempt to explore and address, with his therapists, the root causes of his behaviour, in particular his dishonesty.
'Without such necessary insight and relevant treatment, he continues to be at risk of engaging in such behaviour.'
When contacted by the Daily Mail on Tuesday, Chahoud would not comment on the findings made against him as it was a 'very important thing' but said he'd struggled to find work in the years since.
'This was seven years ago. It's not easy,' he said.
Chahoud's medical registration remains cancelled, according to records held by the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency.
Do you know more? Email
1800 Respect (1800 737 732)
National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028
- READ MORE: Queensland GP jailed for just four months after sexually assaulting a patient in front of her toddler
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