A consultant surgeon says watchdog the General Medical Council must not be weaponised to keep whistleblowers silent.
Dr Omer Karim says he was referred to GMC on charges that almost wrecked his career after he claimed unsafe practices were risking lives at his hospital.
He said he could see parallels with the Lucy Letby case, in which doctors who tried to raise the alarm over the serial killer say they were told to keep silent.
Mr Karim lost his NHS job, his private practice and the family home during a four year battle with a Berkshire NHS trust and doctors’ regulator, the General Medical Council.
Mr Karim, one of the country’s top robotic surgeons for prostate and kidney cancer, ended up living in a Travelodge while he took on the £300k battle with the regulator.
Mr Karim, a 64 year old father of two, said allegations against him arose from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) report in 2014 which ruled Heatherwood and Wexham Park Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust was inadequate and needed “urgent improvements.”
It said staff “did not feel they could raise concerns”. Mr Karim went on radio to discuss the Trust’s failings and blew the whistle on what he described as a poor surgical practice by inadequately-trained surgeons.
He was suspended from the Trust in July 2014 on what he says were trumped up charges of bullying a junior colleague. In May 2015 he was told unless he signed a settlement agreeing not to take action against any Trust management he would face a disciplinary action and be sacked.
This would mean he could not get NHS employment again. As a result of the charges, he said the GMC put “catastrophic” and “life changing” restrictions on his medical practice during its investigation.
A Fitness to Practice hearing took place in April 2018 when he was found not to have committed misconduct. Mr Karim said the way he was targeted for whistleblowing had echoes of the case of Lucy Letby, who was found guilty of murdering seven babies while a nurse at the Countess of Chester hospital.
A senior child specialist at the Countess of Chester, Dr Stephen Brearey, accused executives of “bullying” and “intimidating” senior doctors who raised concerns about Letby.
