The Health Professions Council of SA (HPCSA) has permanently barred a doctor from practising, calling him a “remorseless” sex offender and labelling him a danger to his patients, reports News24.
For the second time in the past four years, Dr Gregory Hough (53), a former Port Elizabeth endocrinologist, was found guilty of sexual misconduct involving former patients.
Now living in Pietermaritzburg, Hough, who has denied wrongdoing, said he has approached the courts in an urgent bid to suspend his barring while he challenges the outcome, saying otherwise he would be left destitute.
In 2021, a professional conduct committee of the HPCSA found him guilty of five counts of unprofessional conduct after similar complaints of inappropriate touching and sexual assault from at least four women.
He escaped with an 18-month suspension at the time.
However, more women came forward with complaints against Hough, previously based in Gqeberha.
He was hauled before a committee, and in June this year, again found guilty of two counts of unprofessional conduct – relating to two patients he saw in 2013 and 2014.
He was accused of assaulting and fondling them and, in one instance, making sexual noises during an examination and telling his patient that she had a “nice one” while touching her private parts.
The doctor was originally charged with five additional counts in connection with a complaint from a third woman – who ultimately withdrew her complaint.
In delivering its verdict in June, the committee said Hough’s version was that he had suffered prejudice “because the complainants took a long time to lodge their complaints”, and that in the interim, he had forgotten some of the details.
“He had given his physical files to his colleagues when he relocated. As a result, he (had to rely) on his memory,” the ruling stated, adding broadly that Hough “denied the allegations”.
Ultimately, the committee found the women’s evidence “reliable and trustworthy” and in July, Hough was sanctioned: the committee ordered that his name be removed from the register, meaning he would be unable to practise under the Health Professions Act.
The committee said he had no remorse and there was “no sign … that he regrets the harm caused to his patients and the medical fraternity as part of the community”.
Hough has denied wrongdoing and said he was the victim of “irregular and biased conduct” on the committee’s part.
Central to Hough’s challenge to the outcome of the proceedings before the HPCSA was that the committee subpoenaed his psychiatrist after she booked him off sick without seeing him.
He argued that the committee had formed a “dim view” of him and took issue with its later refusal to grant him a postponement. He had requested this postponement either to await the High Court’s decision on his bid to halt proceedings or, if unsuccessful, to allow time to prepare for the hearing.
Hough took issue with the committee’s later refusal of various recusal applications he lodged and accused it of reneging on the terms of an agreement reached during litigation.
The committee failed “to make the correct findings in respect of the contradictions and/or probabilities” of the women’s evidence, he maintained.
He accused the HPCSA of “losing sight of the nature” of the proceedings and its jurisdiction in comparing the findings against him and a criminal conviction of rape, and took issue with the committee’s findings that “the propensity to commit sexual crimes” revealed that he had “chosen a path of lawlessness under cover of a medical practice”.
He was confident of having the HPCSA’s findings overturned, but said meanwhile, he had been “financially ruined” after being previously suspended and only finding work again in March 2023.
He said if he is unable to practise, he will have no income.
The HPCSA has filed an intention to oppose, but has yet to file its answering affidavit at the time of publishing.
The case is on the roll for 30 September.
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
Nelson Mandela Bay endocrinologist suspended for sexual assaults
PE specialist faces eight sexual misconduct complaints
ConCourt rejects sexual harassment doctor’s reinstatement bid