Lee Turner

Introduction

Lee Turner is an operating department practitioner who was registered with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) under registration number ODP33415. On 18 November 2025, at the end of a substantive hearing that had opened on 10 November, a panel of the Health and Care Professions Tribunal Service (HCPTS) struck him off the register. It found that he had repeatedly made sexually motivated comments and physical contact towards two colleagues — including pinning one face down on an operating table — that the sexually motivated acts amounted to misconduct, and that his fitness to practise was currently impaired, imposing an interim suspension for the appeal period. Turner denied the allegations; the panel found all of the alleged conduct proved.

Background Information

The published record identifies Turner as an operating department practitioner holding HCPC registration ODP33415. The BBC reported that he worked at Southmead Hospital in Bristol, run by North Bristol NHS Trust, having come to the hospital through an agency rather than as a direct employee. The determination does not describe his training or career history, and this page does not guess at them. MedicWatch, an independent record service that aggregates publicly published decisions of UK healthcare regulators without editorialising their findings, carries his case with erasure (struck off the register) as his most recent published outcome, notes his registration status as not yet verified, and directs readers to the official HCPC register for his current position.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Panel findings, not criminal convictions. The conduct below was found proved by an HCPTS panel to the civil standard. It is not a criminal record: the most serious incident was reported to the police, which investigated and brought no charges, and no arrests were made. What follows is what the panel found and why.

The allegation before the panel was that Turner made sexual comments to two colleagues, thrust his hips into one of them — Colleague A — on several occasions, pinned her face down on an operating table and thrust his crotch into her, and put his arm around the other, Colleague B. The panel found all of the alleged conduct proved, and every act except placing an arm around a colleague to have been sexually motivated, amounting to misconduct.

The most serious incident came on 21 December 2020, while an operating theatre was being prepared for an emergency case: Turner grabbed Colleague A by the back of the neck, pinned her face down on the operating table and, in the BBC’s wording, “touched her sexually”. The panel accepted that the events had occurred as Colleague A described them, its ruling stating, “It follows from this that the Panel rejected the evidence of [Mr Turner] where it conflicted with it.” It also accepted the allegations made by Colleague B.

On impairment, the panel found very limited insight and a continuing risk of repetition, alongside the need to protect the public and maintain confidence in the profession, and concluded that no sanction short of striking off was sufficient. The aggravating factors it recorded were that the issues involving physical contact with Colleague A were particularly serious, that she was clearly distressed by the incident of 21 December 2020, and that behaviour of this type has the potential to damage effective team working and patient care. Turner’s consistent denial ran through the case: the tribunal declared him unfit to practise in part because of it, judging there to be a risk of him acting inappropriately again.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The case received press coverage. The BBC reported the striking-off on 21 November 2025 under the headline “Southmead worker struck off over sexual misconduct”, crediting James Diamond in the West of England and PA Media, and noting that the panel had ruled the findings — which Mr Turner denied — amounted to misconduct which colleagues would consider “deplorable”. North Bristol NHS Trust responded publicly. Professor Steve Hams, the Bristol NHS Group’s Chief Nursing and Improvement Officer, said: “The actions of Mr Turner are utterly unacceptable.” They “violate the standards we uphold as an organisation and as part of the NHS”, his statement said, which the trust would not tolerate; when the concerns were first raised in 2020 it acted immediately — Turner was suspended from duty, the agency employing him was notified, and a formal referral was made to the HCPC, followed by a full investigation. Hams also recognised “the colleagues who came forward”, whose courage and integrity he said “enabled decisive action to be taken”.

Avon and Somerset Police confirmed that it had received an allegation of sexual assault at Southmead Hospital related to 21 December 2020. A spokesperson said: “The incident was investigated but there was insufficient evidence to proceed and no proportionate further lines of enquiry,” and that “No arrests were made.” The regulatory outcome therefore rests on civil-standard panel findings, with no criminal proceedings behind them.

Current Status

Turner was struck off the HCPC register by the panel’s decision of 18 November 2025, with an interim suspension imposed for the appeal period; an interim order of this kind is a protective measure pending appeal, not a finding of fault. Striking off means he is removed from the register and may not practise as an operating department practitioner in the UK unless a future restoration application succeeds, with erasure reviewable after a minimum of five years. His MedicWatch profile records erasure (struck off the register) as his most recent published outcome, notes his registration status as not yet verified, and directs readers to the official HCPC register for his current position, including whether any appeal was pursued.

Impact on Their Career/Life

Striking off ended Turner’s registration and his ability to work as an operating department practitioner in the UK unless restoration succeeds. The case shows the regulatory system operating independently of the criminal one: the same December 2020 incident that produced no criminal charges was found proved at the civil standard on the colleagues’ evidence, with the panel expressly rejecting Turner’s account where the two conflicted. It also shows how denial without insight shapes sanctions — his consistent denial of the events was among the reasons the tribunal gave for striking him off rather than imposing something lesser. Beyond the determination, the published record contains no information about his circumstances since the decision.

Sources

• *MedicWatch, “HCPTS panel strikes off Lee Turner over sexually motivated conduct” (HCPC determination, substantive hearing, decision dated 18 November 2025) — source
• *MedicWatch, “Lee Turner — Operating department practitioner · Health and Care Professions Council ODP33415” — source
• *BBC News, “Southmead worker struck off over sexual misconduct” (James Diamond, West of England, PA Media, 21 November 2025) — source