A leading surgeon is allowed to return to work after he told a colleague, ‘blimey you must be a bit of a goer’ when she told him she had six children.
Stephen Krikler, 68 lost his job as Chief of Surgery at Kettering General Hospital after he cracked a series of ‘jokes’ which he believed ‘would flatten the hierarchy’ between him and junior staff.
In one exchange during a group discussion, the dad-of-two noticed the woman, known as Ms A, was not wearing any tights due to the warm weather and was seen ‘looking her up and down’.
He told her: ‘You’ve got your legs out. Seeing your legs like that reminds me of a t-shirt I once owned. It said: “Nice legs, what time do they open?”.’
When told by Ms A about her brood of children Krikler added: ‘Don’t you have a TV? You need to get a new hobby.’
In a third exchange when she phoned Krikler about a patient, the surgeon said: ‘It’s funny how your name popped up on my phone just as I was talking about perineal massage cream.’
Ms A was said to have been ‘taken aback’ by the jokes and was left feeling ‘disgusted, really, really embarrassed and demeaned’.
She later complained to the medical director at Kettering General Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, saying she was subjected to ‘innuendo, lewd conversation and ogling’ from Krikler.
It emerged he had previously got into trouble after he upset female colleagues by joking about giving them staff hugs.
At an appraisal meeting a colleague gave the feedback: ‘Sometimes in meetings you maybe need to leave the jokes out!’
Last April Krikler, from Kenilworth, Warwickshire was suspended from duty for five months after being found guilty of serious professional misconduct but at a review hearing at the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service last month he was allowed to return to medical practise.
The veteran doctor who qualified in 1980 and retired in 2022 was not at the Manchester hearing but he apologised in a written statement and detailed various professional boundaries courses he had undertaken.
The incidents occurred between September 2019 and September 2021 when Krikler was working at Kettering General Hospital.
The General Medical Council said his actions ‘constituted sexual harassment in that he engaged in unwanted conduct of a sexual nature which had the purpose or effect of violating the dignity of Ms A, or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for her’.
Ms A said she and Krikler were taking part in a group discussion and told the hearing: ‘After I had introduced myself and said I had (made the comment about her six children) Dr Krikler made the comment “blimey – you must be a bit of a goer” and implied that I must be very sexually active.’
Referring to him saying she had her legs out, Ms A added: ‘I remember being shocked and thinking it was explicit and upfront comment to make and I felt very uncomfortable.
‘I walked away feeling highly embarrassed and very self-conscious. I am highly disgusted and offended not only by his comments but also his body language which seriously disconcerted me. His body language added to the offensiveness of his comments and made them appear very suggestive.’
She said she had ‘wrestled with her conscience’ as to whether to make any report and had not wanted to get anyone into trouble but complained after the other jokes were made.
In his statement Krikler claimed Ms A had a ‘ribald’ sense of humour and added: ‘I may well have said something along the lines of her being busy. I absolutely refute that I made any reference to her being sexually active.’
He said his general use of humour was deployed to ‘flatten the hierarchy’ and to relieve tension
He said: ‘I use humour as part of my strategy to help create an atmosphere in which people who might feel intimidated by my seniority can see that I am human, and they can feel comfortable raising a concern.’
In a follow up ‘reflective’ statement he said: ‘Although I try to treat everyone with respect and flatten the hierarchy so as not to be in any way intimidating, I now realise that at times people may be reluctant to give clear signals to me that I have caused any offence or upset, and it is obviously incumbent upon me to improve my awareness of potential upset I may inadvertently cause.
‘I clearly overstepped the mark when I told her about the rude t-shirt, in the mistaken belief that she would find it funny. This was clearly an error on my part and it was inappropriate to have mentioned it in a work environment.’
In revoking the suspension MPTS chairman Miss Annie Hockaday said: ‘The Tribunal considered Mr Krikler’s written reflection to be detailed and sincere and showed that he had deepened and widened his insight since April.
‘The risk of repetition has been reduced to a negligible level and Mr Krikler is safe to resume unrestricted practice. He has reflected on his misconduct, has acknowledged his failings, and now understands the impact of his behaviour on Ms A.’
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