Dr Behzad TAVAKOLI GMC ref. no. 7025715 - copy of MPT determination

The request was successful.

Dear General Medical Council,

Please send me full details of the MPY hearing concerning Dr Behzad TAVAKOLI that concluded on 21 May 2021:

https://www.mpts-uk.org/hearings-and-dec...

'Dr Behzad TAVAKOLI
Medical practitioners tribunal – New Hearing concluded
Outcome on impairment Impaired
Summary of outcome Erasure
Type of case Misconduct
Hearing date from 20 May 2021
Hearing date to 21 May 2021

Details

Previously sat: 18-22 January 2021.

Location of hearing

This was a virtual hearing. Contact us about observing a hearing

GMC reference number 7025715

Area of practice Islington

Decision

Full details of this hearing will be published shortly'

Yours faithfully,

J Roberts

FOI, General Medical Council

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FOI, General Medical Council

Dear J Roberts,

Your information request – IR1-3148270376
Thank you for your email dated 23 July, in which you ask for the full details of the MPY hearing concerning Dr Behzad TAVAKOLI that concluded on 21 May 2021

How we will consider your request
We’re going to look at your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA). This gives us 20 working days to respond but we’ll come back to you as soon as we can.

Who to contact
Christine Abdy will be handling your request. If you have any questions you can contact her via email at [email address].

Yours sincerely

Lauren Barrowcliffe
Information Access Team Assistant

[email address]
General Medical Council
3 Hardman Street
Manchester
M3 3AW

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Christine Abdy (0161 923 6421), General Medical Council

1 Attachment

Dear J Roberts

 

Please find our attached our reply to your request of 23 July.

 

Kind regards

 

 

 

Christine Abdy

Information Access Officer

General Medical Council

3 Hardman Street

Manchester   M3 3AW

 

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J Roberts left an annotation ()

The decisio is now available.

ERASURE

'2. The allegations that have led to Dr Tavakoli’s hearing relate to his conduct in respect of answers given in two applications forms. It is alleged by the General Medical Council (GMC) that Dr Tavakoli submitted an application in 2018 to Whittington Health NHS Trust (‘Whittington’) and answered ‘no’ in respect of questions regarding his previous GMC history. It is also alleged by the GMC that Dr Tavakoli submitted an application in 2019 for registration with DRC Group, a locum agency, and provided answers which did not adequately explain the full extent of the ongoing GMC investigations. It is further alleged by the GMC that Dr Tavakoli’s actions were dishonest.

Investigation 1

3. On 19 October 2012 Dr Tavakoli accepted a caution XXX from the Metropolitan Police XXX. In November 2012 Dr Tavakoli applied for a post as a Senior House Officer Trust Doctor in Surgery at South London Healthcare NHS Trust. He did not mention the caution in a number of forms. This matter was referred to the GMC in 2013 and Dr Tavakoli was informed of the GMC investigation into the incident on 10 January 2013.
...

28. The Tribunal determined that Dr Tavakoli’s actions represented a clear breach of the fundamental tenets of the profession in terms of the need to act with honesty and integrity. The failure to declare the GMC warning and the full extent of the GMC investigation when completing the application forms is an example of conduct which would undermine public trust in the profession. In addition, members of the profession would regard Dr Tavakoli’s conduct as deplorable.' (page 23)

S. Ali left an annotation ()

This is an UNSAFE erasure and should be appealed or the GMC to provide restitution, issues are:

That any caution and other issues and possibly any court process like a Divorce, must be declared to the private-GMC for additional punishment (like the Post Office) which they will do with the veil-of-Public-Interest at whiter-than-white standards. It is simply not an excuse that the question is super-long, very complex or you did not know or was not aware of the obscure processes in the UK.

Police and court outcomes like a caution can have a limited time for disclosures however a private-GMC sanctions is a lifelong punishment as it is at a lower standard of evidence.

Any outcome including warnings regardless of wording or confusing GMC’s own pilot-prosecution-only pathway here with ‘meeting with doctors’, for any Black or Asian doctor should be treated as a lifelong regulatory-conviction that has to be declared for any role in the UK for life even if not obvious. It has to be treated as a life sentence otherwise the doctor lacks insight.

Evidence by Defence will be given little to no weight unless it can be used to prosecute by the GMC Prosecution and GMC-MPTS. Lip service will be that the burden of evidence is on the prosecution but in reality, all burden is on the defence and allegations can/may be changed after several years to weeks before a hearing, to make it more complex and unfair to prepare defence.

Although the answer overall makes little impact to the employer and would be picked up at interview. For the re-application, the Tribunal did not apply that recklessness cannot be equated with dishonesty, as set out in Ahmedsowida v The General Medical Council [2021] EWHC 3466 (Admin) -extra-appealable as NHS employers state this is a competent doctor who is safe.

Depending on race, any and all apologies will be seen as evidence of guilt rather than good insight and restoring the Public Interest. The unfortunate premise of a GMC MPT hearing is guilty until proven innocent unless certain factors apply.

Regulation is needed in the UK but the ironic non-doctor private regulators take a jobsworth approach rather than considering the public Interest genuinely.

Yours sincerely,

Dr Ali
Nationally elected to represent doctors, on the mandate the GMC is unfit for purpose
Please excuse brevity, typos and sense that may be scrambled by autocorrect, formatting, etc.