A HOSPITAL operating theatre worker who made sexual comments about the bodies of anaesthetised patients and groped co-workers at Stoke Mandeville Hospital has been struck off.

Theatre practitioner Leo Stamp, of High Wycombe, also made graphic sexual comments to other staff and was drunk while on duty in the operating theatre, a fitness to practise panel found.

Colleagues said the 46-year-old was drunk at work on two occasions, had grabbed one woman's bottom in an anaesthetic room and made inappropriate remarks to another.

The panel heard he made comments of a sexual nature about the private parts of patients whilst they were sedated. He also discussed lewd fantasies involving sleeping patients and staff at the hospital, as well as his own sexual history which included orgies.

The Health and Care Professions Council panel found 21 of the 25 accusations levelled at Stamp proved and struck him from its register following the week-long hearing in Kennington, London.

Panel chairman William Nelson said: "This sexually motivated behaviour occurred over a period of some years "During this period he appeared to have targeted a number of victims including young female Operating Department Practitioners who initially felt unable to report Mr Stamp’s behaviour due to the fact that they were in the early stages of their career and the fact they felt Mr Stamp was highly regarded by his employer.

"He also targeted other female colleagues in circumstances where they were vulnerable and which caused them distress."

The fitness to practise hearing heard the incidents happened between May 2009 and May 2012, while Stamp was employed by Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust at Stoke Mandeville Hospital.

He hugged and kissed one colleague between November 2010 and September 2011, and grabbed another co-worker's bottom in the anaesthetics room on January 27, 2012, the same day he left the operating theatre to use the toilet and returned speaking on his phone.

Stamp told a woman doctor he would like to have a threesome with her and revealed details of his own sexual relationships and fantasies as well as those of other hospital staff, including a surgeon sleeping with an anaesthetist's partner.

Several colleagues made complaints of his drunkenness at work, which included him being described as "confused and incoherent" and slurring his speech and being unsteady on his feet while on dut.

The hearing also heard that on one occasion he said he needed “a poo”, going to the toilet midway through an operation on a pregnant woman who had lost two and a half litres of blood at what was described as a "crucial" time.

Shannett Thompson, presenting officer for the HCPC, told the hearing, in relation to January 27, 2012:"When the patient was asleep he asked if he could go for a poo. The anaesthetist said not really but if someone could take over, he could."

Miss Thompson also told the hearing Stamp would refer to a junior doctor as "sexy" and touched her bottom once as well as kissing her on the head.

He claimed he had not been drunk but was entitled to take naps at work in the on call room and slurred his speech due to facial palsy.

Although some of the complaints did not amount to him being unfit to work and several witnesses attested to Stamp's clinical ability, Mr Nelson added: "Mr Stamp has not accepted any wrongdoing at any stage of these proceedings and that he still appears to be in denial.

"He has shown no remorse and he has provided no evidence of any attempts at remediation. The Panel has concluded that Mr Stamp has shown no insight whatsoever and it therefore cannot rule out repetition of similar behaviour."

The panel also said it “found particularly disturbing his behaviour in making coarse remarks about the private parts of anaesthetised patients”.

Stamp, a father of one, was struck off and suspended during the appeal period to prevent him working pending any subsequent appeal.