A NHS psychiatrist who advised a patient to get help from a 24-hour church TV channel based in Nigeria because she might be possessed by demonic 'special forces' will face administrative punishment after he was sacked, Dailymail reports.

 

The report revealed that Dr Julius Awakame, 50, recorded medical notes diagnosing the woman as having a history of 'satanic ritual abuse' and said her issues could not be addressed by regular treatment but instead got the name of a televison station run by a church in Lagos adding: 'neither psychiatry not psychology would be able to help because there are special forces at play.'

 

The woman also claimed that Awakame also told her to get 'nice holy water' before 'switching off' during the consultation at a health centre in Harwich, Essex. When community psychiatric nurse Martin Rowe later quizzed Awkame whether she was possessed, the medic replied: 'She may well be' and claimed she had been thrown out of her local church due to her condition.

 

The doctor's employment with the North Essex Partnership Foundation Trust was terminated the following month. Today Awkame - who has since returned to his native Ghana - faced being struck off after he was found guilty in his absence at a medical tribunal of a number of misconduct charges.

 

The consultation took place on January 23 2014 when Awakame was treating the vulnerable woman as an outpatient. The hearing, in Manchester, was told he was made aware she had a 'Dissociative Identity' - a personality disorder - and a 'history of previous satanic ritual abuse' before making a record of it in his notes.

 

In an email to the panel he said he had left clinical medicine and added: 'I consider all these proceedings flogging of a dead horse. But I understand the GMC has to go through the motions.' 

 

He said he did not have the 'time or resources' to be involved in the proceedings.

 

David Kyle, chairman of the fitness to practise panel dismissed a claim that Awakame had asked Patient A to get 'nice holy water.'

 

But he said: 'The Tribunal explored the possibility of Patient A being biased as well as considering her overall reliability. In the event, the Tribunal did not consider there was any such bias.

 

'Her oral evidence to the Tribunal was consistent with her written statement. Despite the lapse of time and her complex mental health problems, she was a reliable and credible witness who was doing her best to give an accurate account of events.

 

'There is unchallenged evidence that at an early stage of the consultation Dr Awakame knew about the patient's diagnosis and previous history.

 

'Indeed, he made a record of the diagnosis in his note of the consultation. Dr Awakame does not discount having said something about anointed water when describing the church to Patient A, but he has no recollection of doing so.'