Scarf row dentist guilty of misconduct (From This Is Lancashire)

Scarf row dentist guilty of misconduct

1:04pm Thursday 27th September 2007 in

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A Muslim dentist from Prestwich who refused to treat a woman unless she wore a headscarf can carry on practising, despite being found guilty of misconduct charges.

Omer Butt (31) was let off with an official reprimand at the end of a three-day hearing before the General Dental Council's professional conduct committee. He had told the Asian mum-of-two at the Unsworth Smile Clinic in Parr Lane he would not register her as an NHS patient if she did not cover her head, even though she told him she was a non-practising Muslim. The woman was left "humiliated and upset" as well as suffering from painful toothache when she refused to give in to what she described as "racial discrimination".

The committee found Butt, of Sheepfoot Lane, guilty of most of the allegations the woman made, refusing to believe his account and the evidence of two Muslim fellow co-workers - practice manager Yasser Iqbal and a nurse - whom Butt had called as witnesses. The hearing was told how Butt would refuse to treat Muslim patients unless they adhered to a strict Islamic dress code, and he would preach at them if they refused.

The woman, referred to as Patient A, who was an NHS community nurse then working for Bury Primary Care Trust, told the hearing: "I did ask what would happen if I didn't wear a headscarf and was told I would not be able to register there as a patient.

"I did feel that I was under duress and didn't really have an alternative.

"I said that this practice was discriminatory and the nurse told me: You can do what you want outside but in here it is his world'."

Desperate to get her tooth examined, she agreed to wear a headscarf but walked out in disgust when she heard Butt shouting to an assistant that she would have to wait in the waiting room with her head covered.

Butt denied trying to force Patient A to wear the scarf or refusing to register her as an NHS patient on April 18, 2005. He is the older brother of self-confessed former Islamic extremist Hassan Butt who once praised the September 11 attacks.

Butt said he did not force her to cover her hair or threaten to refuse to register her at his surgery and said it was a polite request.

He denied ever asking Patient A if she was a Muslim, saying he made "a very good assumption" about her religious beliefs because she had an Islamic surname.

Butt told the panel: "It is unlawful for me as a Muslim male to be looking or gazing at a woman who is exposing more than her hands and face."

He added: "As far as I was concerned she was going to become a patient at the practice. She was happy. I was treating her like a family member."

The panel chairman Stewart Goulding told Butt: "In seeking to impose an Islamic dress code on Patient A in order for treatment to be provided you undermined public confidence in the profession by discriminating against Patient A and did not act in the best interests of Patient A. The committee found Ms A a credible witness."

In issuing a reprimand, Mr Goulding added: "It is apparent that on 18 April 2005 your conduct fell short of the standards expected of a dentist in that you did not put the interests of Patient A first."

Butt, who is free to practise without restraint, nodded as the admonition was read out.