Dr Foy-Yamah denied the allegations
Dr Aloaye Foy-Yamah(Image: Jason Roberts /Manchester Evening News)
A Blackpool doctor accused of raping a patient has been banned from working in the UK for life after the health watchdog appealed an initial 12-month ban.
The General Medical Council launched an investigation into Dr Aloaye Foy-Yamah, who worked in acute medicine at Blackpool Victoria Hospital, after the woman reported her allegations to the police in January 2019. Although no further criminal action was taken against the Nigerian-born doctor the GMC brought a case against him to the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service with a hearing taking place in March last year.
The burden of proof in an MPTS hearing is on the balance of probabilities – more likely than not – unlike the stricter, beyond all reasonable doubt which juries in criminal courts must use to make a decision.
The MPTS, which holds tribunals that make independent decisions about doctors’ fitness to practise, concluded it was likely the doctor had raped the woman. The doctor continued to deny the accusation.
However, the tribunal only imposed a 12-month ban on Dr Foy-Yamah which the GMC said was insufficient. The watchdog appealed the tribunal’s decision and the High Court has now quashed the original sanction and instructed a new MPTS hearing to take place.
The hearing, which concluded on Wednesday May 13, determined that the doctor’s name should be erased from the medical register. It also deemed it necessary to impose an immediate order of suspension, to cover the appeal period, preventing Dr Foy-Yamah from working if he were to lodge an appeal.
Dr Foy-Yamah moved from Nigeria to London in 2002 where he completed further qualifications. He initially worked in Essex, where his wife and children still live, before heading to Blackpool in 2012 where he worked at Victoria Hospital as an acute medicine consultant until he was suspended.
LancsLive visited Dr Foy-Yamah at his home in Blackpool in February this year. He continued to maintain his innocence and claimed he had been targeted by “Nigerian scammers” attempting to blackmail him.
“The people who tried blackmailing me, accusing me of raping this woman, demanded £20,000 and said they would tell people if I didn’t pay,” he said. “I didn’t do it so I wasn’t going to pay it.
“The police carried out a full investigation and said there wasn’t sufficient evidence to prosecute me.”
A spokesperson for the General Medical Council, said: “There is no place for sexual misconduct in healthcare. We maintained that Dr Aloaye Foy-Yamah posed an ongoing risk and should be struck off the medical register to protect patients and uphold confidence in the profession.”
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