A SCOTS surgeon forced himself on a nurse in a hospital corridor after earlier telling her “you know how I feel about you”, as they worked together at a patient’s bedside, a disciplinary tribunal has been told.

Dr David Varghese, 45, grabbed the woman, covered her mouth with his own hand and then kissed it as she tried to fight him off, it

was said.

The married father of one had been displaying an “over-

familiarity” with the nurse which included him giving her his personal mobile number and

talking about his wife while they tended to patients, it was alleged.

While working as a clinical fellow in cardiothoracic surgery at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, Dr Varghese is alleged to have told the woman: “You know you are my favourite nurse.”

He is alleged to have continued by saying to her: “You know there is a thing between us.”

The nurse initially only spoke to colleagues about the incidents, but police were eventually called in after another incident in which Dr Varghese stood so close to her the “sides of their bodies were touching”, it was said.

A Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service in Manchester heard the woman, Nurse A, wept as she said: “I was making up IV (intravenous) drugs at the time and my body just froze, I couldn’t move. I had a syringe and needle and drugs in my hand, not the type of thing you could just throw down on the table and walk away from.”

Earlier, the hearing was told the nurse worked with Dr Varghese in the high dependency unit.

The tribunal heard that problems allegedly began in July 2013 when he began making the inappropriate remarks.

The nurse, who is in her 40s, said: “I was shocked he was carrying on the way he was in front of an acutely ill patient.”

She added: “He spoke about his wife giving him a hard time, and fighting to see his daughter and something about his dog. It all felt to me inappropriate.”

Later, the hearing heard, the pair were dealing with a patient and the nurse contacted Dr Varghese with results of various tests.

But the surgeon replied by asking if she had a piece of paper so he could give her his mobile number.

The nurse claimed he then wrote it on the back of an old thank-you card and passed it to her

The nurse asked why he had given it to her and the tribunal heard Dr Varghese said it was because she knew how he felt about her.

Counsel for the General Medical Council Miss Bernadette Baxter said on July 28 2013 Dr Varghese had stopped Nurse A while she was on her way to the hospital staff room to have some lunch.

Miss Baxter added: “As she was going along the corridor she heard the doctor say her name. She turned round and stopped.

“He approached her and as they were both in the doorway of the room standing face-to-face he put one hand behind her head and pulled her head towards him.

“He then put his other hand over her mouth and then he kissed the back of his own hand that was over her mouth.

“As he was doing so he pushed her against the wall such that her hair clip at the back of her head went in her head and she could feel his whole body against her whole body.

“She pushed against him to try and get him away and she finally managed to release his grip. She had been very surprised and shocked by this action and when she managed to break his grip she said his name, ‘David’, as if to admonish him, asking what he was doing.

“He said in reply that he was pleased he could see again. She understood this to be some kind of reference to a health problem he’d had. He then just walked down the corridor saying something about dating.”

Dr Varghese, who denies

misconduct, soon afterwards

apologised, the tribunal heard.

The hearing continues.