Hundreds of foreign doctors allowed to treat British patients without ID checks

It has been suggested that the issue was caused by issuing emergency licenses during the pandemic, which eased hurdles for doctors wishing to register with the GMC.

During the temporary measure, doctors did not have to hand over identity documents to the health regulator, with a UK address, qualifications and no previous complaints deemed sufficient.

More than half a decade after the start of the pandemic, the GMC has yet to check the IDs of those who were allowed to practise using licences dished out in this time.

The GMC has said the number of doctors whose identities have not been verified now stands at 341, leaving patients at the mercy of hundreds of unvetted practitioners.

The revelation came after it was uncovered that foreign doctors who had lost their licences abroad over serious misconduct were allowed to freely practise in Britain.

Sujan Thyagaraj, a psychiatrist who lost his medical licence in the US after he had sex with a patient, was subsequently given the green light to work for a Bradford NHS trust.

Radiologist Sattar Kadhem was suspended from practising in Sweden and Norway after repeatedly misreading scans, but was accepted to practise in Britain's health service.

In addition to the pair, 20 other doctors were revealed to have had serious disciplinary action taken against them overseas which went unrecorded on their GMC-issued licenses.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting labelled the investigation's findings "horrific", adding that it was “a serious failure in our medical regulatory systems that I will not tolerate”.

And the chief executive of Action Against Medical Accidents, Paul Whiteing, described the due diligence shortcomings as a "cause for concern".

He said: "At the heart of any effective registration system for doctors is a robust validation system.

“The evidence here would suggest that there are weaknesses in the validation process, which hopefully are historic.

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"At worst this could lead to patient safety being compromised if doctors who are not fit to practise are allowed to do so.”

A GMC spokeswoman said: “During the pandemic we had to pause in-person ID checks to comply with UK Government guidance.

"We continued to verify all qualifications and conduct basic ID checks so that doctors were not prevented from joining the workforce to deal with the COVID emergency.

“Doctors were advised they would need to verify their identities once restrictions were lifted, and a note was placed on their online record to reflect this.

"We also flagged this to employers and emphasised the importance of verifying IDs for this group of doctors as part of their usual recruitment processes.

“Since then, we have completed outstanding ID checks for thousands of these doctors.

"There are now 341 doctors outstanding and we have been contacting them and their employers to urge them to complete these checks as a matter of urgency.

"We have been clear that we can, and will, remove their licence to practise if they fail to comply.”

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