NHS has undercurrent of racism, claims surgeon

A SURGEON from Henley who won an employment tribunal against an industry regulator says he will continue to fight against racism within the NHS.

Omer Karim had been working at Wexham Park Hospital in Slough for 20 years when allegations of bullying were made against him in 2013.

He was a senior consultant in the urology department and an internationally renowned specialist in prostate cancer and robotic surgery.

Reading Employment Tribunal decided that Mr Karim was discriminated against by the General Medical Council on the grounds of his race — he is a Muslim of Sudanese and Irish heritage.

The terms of the settlement will be finalised in the coming weeks.

The GMC is a public body and charity that maintains the official register of medical practioners.

Mr Karim, 62, said the same charges were brought against a white doctor but these were dismissed. He also said the GMC deliberately withheld evidence that would have proved his innocence.

He now works at the Royal Marsden Hospital in Chelsea in robotic kidney and cancer surgery.

He has written to the GMC and the Health Secretary, calling for a public inquiry into how investigations of doctors are carried out.

Mr Karim described being wrongly accused of bullying as “pretty devastating”.

He said: “You feel as though everything has collapsed and is falling apart. When you’ve done nothing, you realise people can be so vindictive.

“I was discriminated against by the GMC and I had clear-cut evidence that I was innocent but they withheld evidence during my fitness-to-practice tribunal in 2018.

“It is a landmark victory and the first time it has ever been done against the GMC.

“They basically look at your name and where you are from and they decide the case beforehand based on that — it is pretty shocking, to be honest. My background was the only difference between me and the guy who was let off and he was my main comparison throughout this whole case. He was white and I have a Muslim name and I’m mixed race.

“In America, if you are very good, you will get to the top of your profession very quickly because you will bring financial benefits.

“Unfortunately, with the NHS, there is an undercurrent of hidden racism and, sadly, it is rife throughout the system, right up to the regulator.

“It is very disappointing for a number of doctors who work hard for many years before they notice this. It is there, unfortunately.”

Mr Karim lives in Peppard Lane with his wife Helen, 62, a former midwife, and they have two grown-up children, Joseph and Lizzie, who both live in London.

In 2013, he and colleagues at Wexham Park raised concerns with the Care Quality Commission that ethnic minority doctors were bullied.

The GMC decided not to take any action.

In the same year, the regulator received allegations about Mr Karim’s behaviour. The case was dismissed but the hospital launched two investigations.

In 2014, he went on local radio after the fromer Wexham Park Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust was criticised by the Care Quality Commission in order to defend the reputation of staff.

He explained: “I was a whistle-blower. Our hospital was very supportive of the local population but failed its CQC report, which came out in May 2014.

“I was invited to go on the radio because, the day before, the chief executive had been on and was asked whether he would allow his family or relatives to go to hospital and he said ‘no’.

“We were shocked by this because we knew it was a good hospital and the CQC report said the hospital had failed due to years of bad management and underfunding. A lot of the consultant body were very upset because we had a great reputation and were second-to-none.

“I said on the radio, ‘It is there in black and white in the CQC report — the hospital has failed because of years of bad management and underfunding’.

“The minute I said that, the hospital had it in for me. I had allegation after allegation made against me. At the time, there were three senior consultants in the urology department. We were excluded from the hospital and they set up an internal investigation.”

Mr Karim was referred back to the GMC later that year and suspended from work.

In 2015, the interim orders panel of the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service imposed restrictions on his practice, pending the outcome of the GMC’s investigation. The restrictions were lifted later that year but his case was not heard until 2018.

Mr Karim said: “The GMC immediately called me for another hearing and put conditions on my registration. That is very damning for a doctor.

“When you get conditions on your registration, you lose all your private practice because insurance companies drop you like a stone.

“They decided to suspend me again and continued with a disciplinary hearing against me.

“Having lost my private practice, I had the choice of whether or not to face the disciplinary at the hospital but I was guaranteed to be dismissed.

“Because the NHS is a monopoly employer, once you are dismissed, you never work in the NHS again.

“I was effectively blackmailed into signing a settlement agreement, walking away with nothing and not suing them for any discrimination, harassment or loss of earnings.” He resigned in 2015 and has since worked as a locum in other parts of the country.

After the GMC investigation, he attended a fitness-to-practice hearing in 2018 and was cleared of any wrongdoing. Mr Karim said: “At that point, I said, ‘The GMC should not have done this to me’ so I decided to sue them.

“I knew that one white colleague had exactly the same allegations against him. They dropped his case after six months and didn’t take it further.

“The GMC chose to not believe the allegations against him but believe the allegations against me. This was clear-cut discrimination.

“They were basically trying to strike me off as a doctor. I won the case because the tribunal judge and panel saw that I was discriminated against and treated differently.

“The main thing is the GMC were so blinkered. Right at the beginning, they had evidence that would have proved my innocence and they didn’t disclose it.

“It only came out after 2018 and nobody has answered to that yet. Even at this tribunal, they were reluctant to release recordings that they had in their possession, which would have shown I was innocent.”

The employment tribunal said the GMC should have been conscious of the “adverse position” of ethnic minority doctors in considering the complaint.

The ruling, made by Judge Andrew Gumbiti-Zimuto, said: “We have come to the conclusion that there is a difference in the treatment of the claimant in contrast to Mr L, a white doctor.

“We do not consider that there has been a credible explanation for the difference in the treatment.

“We consider that there is evidence from which we could conclude that the difference in treatment of the claimant in comparison with Mr L and the delay were on the grounds of his race.”

A spokesman for the Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust, which replaced the old trust, said: “We have worked hard to develop an open and inclusive culture across our trust.

“We want to be the best possible employer for all our people and will continue doing everything we can to listen to staff and eliminate inequalities throughout our organisation.”

The GMC said it would fully consider the tribunal’s findings.