AN NHS therapist has been flagged for crossing professional boundaries by soliciting sex and wanting to share intimate images with a patient.

Alicia Hing, while employed at Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Bucks, sent messages to a patient known to be vulnerable due to serious spinal injuries.

The breach of professional conduct extends to Hing having sent the patient a selfie of herself wearing gym clothes.

Procuring a 12-month caution from the Health and Care Professions Tribunal Service, Alicia Hing was duly penalised for her unsuitable behaviour.

Following the patient's admission into the spinal injury centre in 2018, Hing was assigned as his occupational therapist.

Subsequently, in December, the patient received a friend request and a message containing Hing's contact details.

A series of Whatsapp messages exchanged over four weeks included images of Hing in her gym attire and suggestive conversation.

The patient, upon expressing confusion, was consoled by Hing and later discouraged her from sharing nude images.

The therapist then made further unrequested advances referring to the dating app, Tinder, and openly asked for sex. 

The hearing heard how in one message, Hing asked her patient "Wanna bang doe?” or words to that effect.

Hing admitted in front of the HCPTS panel her conduct was instead towards seeking validation.

She said: "[Patient A] was vulnerable, and I took advantage of that for my own personal gain (to seek comfort and support in a time of poor mental health)."

Remorsefully addressing her derogatory remarks about amputees, Hing mentioned it was an unfortunate coping mechanism in a difficult period of her career.

Using the aforementioned messages and chain of events as proof, the HCPTS panel confirmed Hing's professional misconduct and damage to the profession's reputation.

Nonetheless, her apparent show of regret spared her from being struck off.

The tribunal concluded that Hing had guilted the patient into guilt "for having made an entirely proper complaint about the Registrant’s conduct."

She was handed a 12-month caution by the Health and Care Professions Tribunal Service (HCPTS) for breaching ‘fundamental tenets of the profession’.