A doctor accused of bluffing his way on to an intensive care unit (ICU) during the Covid pandemic to visit a critically ill relative is to keep his job, a tribunal has decided, after he claimed he did not know he was flouting lockdown rules.
Trainee GP Ashbal Chaudhary, 30, had faced being struck off after he turned up at a hospital without prior authorisation wearing medical scrubs and a stethoscope at a time when visits to patients from loved ones were banned.
Unsuspecting staff at Wythenshawe hospital in Manchester waved Chaudhary through thinking he was a member of the ICU team – not realising he was in fact a GP trainee at a different hospital and not allowed on the premises because of Covid restrictions.
During his illicit visit, Chaudhary accessed blood test results, spoke to the patient at his bedside and liaised with surgeons about forthcoming treatment before he was reported to police and the General Medical Council when it was discovered he was not a member of staff. He later claimed his “head space was muddled” at the time.
At the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MTPS), Chaudhury was found guilty of serious professional misconduct but was deemed fit to medically practise after he claimed he mistakenly believed he would have been allowed to visit his unnamed relative as he thought he was dying.
The incident occurred on 25 April 2020, just a month after the Covid lockdown began, when Chaudhary’s male relative was transferred to Wythenshawe from Stepping Hill hospital for emergency surgery to have a gangrenous foot amputated.
Chaudhary, who works at North Manchester general hospital, initially called staff at Wythenshawe in a bid to get information on the relative but then turned up in person.
He told the hearing he had previously been allowed to visit his relative at Stepping Hill and claimed he was unaware the lockdown rules at Wythenshawe were more stringent.
Chaudhary said he was dressed in his travel scrubs as he was “on autopilot” when leaving his home and driving to the hospital.
Clearing Chaudhary for work, the MPTS chair, Julia Oakford, said: “On the balance of probabilities, Dr Chaudhary was focused on the immediate care plan for Patient A and that questions about visiting rights would likely have been subordinate in his mind at that time.”
She added: “Dr Chaudhary’s wearing of green scrubs and a stethoscope misled hospital staff into thinking that he was a member of staff as opposed to a visitor – however, he had not done so with the intent to mislead … He simply was carrying out his normal practice of wearing scrubs when travelling. Ordinary decent people would not consider this to be dishonest.’’
