A KENT doctor has been suspended for four months by the General Medical Council for serious professional misconduct.

Mohamed Bahagat Shar, 54, slipped his hand down a patient's G-string during an examination. He put his hand on the woman's groin when he was examining her for bowel problems and an injured foot.

He also admitted spanking a receptionist's bottom and fondling her at his surgery, the General Medical Council heard.

But Shar was cleared of indecency in relation to the second woman after he claimed she flirted with him and consented.

The doctor, registered at Jasmine House, Shepherds Walk, Chestfield, near Whitstable, had denied serious professional misconduct.

Ian Stern, for the GMC, had called for Shar to be struck off immediately for his 'indecent and inappropriate' conduct in relation to the 27-year-old patient.

"It is difficult to imagine how indecently touching a patient can be anything other than serious professional misconduct," he said.

"It is difficult to imagine how any finding of indecency on a patient cannot be marked by some interference on the registration of a doctor. I ask for the doctor's name to be erased."

The GMC's conduct committee found Dr Shar guilty of serious professional misconduct but suspended him for just four months.

The 33-year-old receptionist had said the GP slapped her as she bent down to do some filing at the Saddleton Road surgery in Whitstable, in December 2000.

She also accused him of grabbing her breasts and putting his hand down her knickers at the Whitstable Surgery in Shepherds Walk, Chesterfield, on March 27, 2001.

Dr Shar told the GMC the receptionist had been been playing a game with him and enticed him into touching her when she complained of a twinge in her leg.

The panel ruled Dr Shar had behaved inappropriately by slapping her bottom but found he had not been indecent with the woman.

The 27-year-old patient had told how she was horrified when Dr Shar's hands strayed onto her private parts while he was examining her on December 21, 1999.

The incident occurred after the woman had complained of bowel problems and an injured foot. She was asked to take her trousers down and lie on the GP's couch.

But when he touched her through her G-string before she called out:'Do you mind'?"

Dr Shar claimed it was purely accidental but the committee ruled his behaviour in that incident was indecent. He had also inappropriately tried to contact her after she made a complaint to East Kent health authority.

Panel chairman Kenneth Robb said: "Patients must be able to trust doctors with their lives and wellbeing. In view of the findings towards the patient, this panel have found your conduct amounted to misconduct.'