A DOCTOR who used to work at the Great Western Hospital is fighting to save his career after being accused of inappropriately putting a stethoscope under a patient’s knickers.

Three years ago, Dr Kumal Kulkarni, was accused of sexually assaulting a woman patient while working at the Swindon hospital.

Prosecutors said he had molested the patient in a disabled toilet at the hospital – however the doctor was acquitted by a jury at Swindon Crown Court in November 2006.

Now the 27-year-old is facing fresh career-threatening disciplinary proceedings at a different hospital.

House Officer, Dr Kulkarni, had been at Milton Keynes Hospital for less than four weeks when a patient complained in 2007 that he had inappropriately examined her by placing a stethoscope under her knickers without her consent.

Yesterday, in a vital test case, High Court judges ruled that Dr Kulkarni has a right to full legal representation during disciplinary hearings.

The court’s decision is bound to lead to greater formality at many internal disciplinary hearings and, as a by-product, to a potentially lucrative line of business for the legal profession.

Before getting his job at the Buckinghamshire hospital, Dr Kulkarni had disclosed to the Milton Keynes Hospital NHS Trust that he had previously been accused and acquitted of sexually assaulting a woman patient while working at the GWH.

He had only been working there for six weeks in his first proper post. Dr Kulkarni’s contract with the Swindon and Marlborough NHS Trust ceased just after the allegations were made.

The son of a consultant urologist, who obtained a first at Oxford and went on to get an MA at medical school, he was described in court as a model student with an excellent bedside manner.

The Milton Keynes incident initially triggered a row with hospital bosses over whether Dr Kulkarni could be represented by a Medical Protection Society (MPS) lawyer at the hearing.

While agreeing Dr Kulkarni was entitled to be accompanied by an MPS representative, the Trust insisted that Department of Health policy did not permit legal representation at disciplinary hearings.

However, Lady Justice Smith, sitting with President of the Family Division, Sir Mark Potter, and Lord Justice Wilson, yesterday broke new legal ground when she ruled that Dr Kulkarni is contractually entitled to face his ordeal with a lawyer by his side.