Hussain v General Medical Council
2014
COURT OF APPEAL (CRIMINAL DIVISION)
United Kingdom
CORAM
- LORD JUSTICE LONGMORE
- LORD JUSTICE BEAN
- MR JUSTICE OUSELEY
Areas of Law
- Administrative Law
- Criminal Law and Procedure
- Health Law
- Evidence Law
2014
COURT OF APPEAL (CRIMINAL DIVISION)
United Kingdom
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
Dr. Fazal Hussain appealed against a decision which found his fitness to practice impaired by dishonest conduct, including falsified qualifications, unauthorized input on feedback forms, and plagiarism. The court confirmed the dishonesty findings, upheld the Panel's decision on impaired fitness to practice, and justified the sanction of erasure from the Medical Register. Concerns about the application of the Ghosh test and an explicit distinction between falsity and dishonesty were noted.
Judgment
Lord Justice Bean :
This is an appeal brought by Dr Fazal Hussain against a decision of His Honour Judge Bird sitting as a deputy judge of the Administrative Court at Manchester, dismissing his appeal against a decision of the Fitness to Practise Panel of the Medical Practitioners' Tribunal Service ("the Panel"). The Panel determined on 26 th June 2013 that Dr Hussain's fitness to practise was impaired as a result of certain findings that were made against him and that his name should be erased from the Medical Register.
The Panel heard evidence over eleven days. With one day of submissions on the Appellant's submission of no case to answer, three days of final submissions on the facts and on impairment and a final day on which it gave its decision on sanction, the Panel spent some 16 days in total dealing with the hearing.
The allegations
The allegations made against Dr Hussain which proceeded to a final determination were:
a. Allegation 2: "in your cv submitted to the Townhead Surgery between February and March 2010 you falsely stated that you had completed (a) an M.Sc in Pharmacy and Pharmacology at the Loughborough University of Technology (Loughborough University) (b) a B.Sc in Pharmacy and Pharmacology at the University of Leicester."
b. Allegation 4: "In respect of a Multi Source Feedback Form ("the Form") dated 2 June 2010 timed at approximately 09.31: … (b) you inputted all of the contents on behalf of healthcare assistant Lesley Wilson (c) the view and/or knowledge of healthcare assistant Lesley Wilson that you inputted was, in part, false…."
c. Allegation 5: "On or around 19 th March 2010 during the course of your training in your reflective learning log you plagiarised: (a) the NHS Education for Scotland website (b) the University of Southampton NHS Trust Website"
d. Allegation 6: "On or around 11 th May 2010 during the course of your training in your e-portfolio you plagiarised a publication of the "California Chlamydia Action Coalition"
e. Allegation 7: "On or around 19 th July 2010 during the course of your training in your reflective learning log you plagiarised (a) reviews of the novel "The Citadel" from the Amazon website (b) a review of the novel "The Citadel" from the "enotes.com" website"
f. Allegation 9: "the conduct referred to [in the allegations set out above] was dishonest and that in relation to [the above facts] your fitness to practise is impaired by reason of your misconduct"
Each of these allegations