Updated: Tuesday, 9.50 pm

A ROMANIAN DOCTOR who was serving as a Senior House Officer (SHO) in Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital Crumlin has been convicted on several counts of “poor professional performance.”

Doctor Mihai Anton had been described as “the worst” physician a colleague has worked with, before the verdict of the Medical Council earlier today.

In a fitness to practise inquiry, he had been charged with 14 counts of professional misconduct.

He worked at the hospital for 10 days in January 2013 before a complaint was made and he was suspended.

The committee hearing his case heard that he had difficulty with tasks such as scrubbing in for operations, putting on gowns and gloves and prescribing paracetamol.

It is alleged that Anton was unable to dictate or write notes on patients’ charts and that he did not take notes at all for some patients.

One allegation is that Anton failed to understand the nature of many tests and the inquiry heard that he had sought parental consent for the wrong type of hernia operation.

When challenged by his superiors on this, Anton said that in Romania the same term is used for both operations.

A HR manager at the hospital testified that Anton had been given the job after a phone interview.

This was done to “accommodate” Anton, but the practcice has since been changed, she said.

The inquiry heard that Anton told colleagues he was a consultant in Romania for six years, but was willing to step down two levels to gain experience in a foreign country.

On one occassion, Anton contaminated a senior colleague in a surgery by touching them with non-sterile hands.

When he was admonished for this, he touched two other colleagues.

He is also accused of putting a patient and their family in a room clearly marked as needing to be cleaned and failed to get a name or date of birth from one patient.

He also left work early, took long breaks and was late, the allegations say.

Dr Suzanne McMahon, who worked with Anton in Crumlin, said that he was “the worst” SHO she has ever worked with.

Additional reporting by Dan Mac Guill

Originally published: Monday, 2.04 pm