Convicted sex criminal Dr Behrouz Alidoost + GMC's identification of doctors complained about
Dear General Medical Council,
I have searched the MPTS database without success for the convicted sex criminal Dr Behrouz Alidoost. The following newspaper story dated 14 January 2020 says that he was struck off the medical register:
'Disgraced dirty doctor who sexually assaulted a patient and two other woman has been jailed in shame.
"Creepy" Behrouz Alidoost abused his position of trust and responsibility at a private clinic which helped people wanting to lose weight.
A court heard he molested one woman during a consultation and went on to subject two other victims to sex attacks.
Alidoost, 54, who has since been struck off the medical register, has now been jailed for two years after pleading guilty to six offences of sexual assault.'
https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/nor...
1. Can you confirm that a MPT panel considered the behaviour of Dr Alidoost? If so, please provide the relevant dates that it sat.
2. I know that you remove decisions from the MPTS website after one year, but if the hearing concluded less than one year ago please provide me with a copy of the decision. If you cannot provide me with a copy of the decision, please provide me with all other information you hold that I am entitled to under FOIA concerning the erasure of Dr Alidoost's name from the medical register.
The newspaper story also includes this:
'The court heard the woman contacted the General Medical Council but was told she had not provided enough information to identify him, so no investigation was commenced at that point.'
3. Please provide figures for 2019/20 on the number of doctors complained about whom you were unable to identify because (i) complainants did not provide enough information; and (ii) any other reason.
Yours faithfully,
J Roberts
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Information Access team
General Medical Council
Email: [GMC request email]
Working with doctors Working for patients
The General Medical Council helps to protect patients and improve medical
education and practice in the UK by setting standards for students and
doctors. We support them in achieving (and exceeding) those standards, and
take action when they are not met.
Dear J Roberts,
Your information request – IR1-2902155815
Thank you for your email dated 30 December, in which you ask for the
below:
1. Can you confirm that a MPT panel considered the behaviour of Dr
Alidoost? If so, please provide the relevant dates that it sat.
2. I know that you remove decisions from the MPTS website after one year,
but if the hearing concluded less than one year ago please provide me with
a copy of the decision. If you cannot provide me with a copy of the
decision, please provide me with all other information you hold that I am
entitled to under FOIA concerning the erasure of Dr Alidoost's name from
the medical register.
3. Please provide figures for 2019/20 on the number of doctors complained
about whom you were unable to identify because (i) complainants did not
provide enough information; and (ii) any other reason.
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
Louise Gormley will be handling your request. If you have any questions
you can contact her via email at [1][email address].
Yours sincerely
Lauren Barrowcliffe
Information Access Team Assistant
General Medical Council
3 Hardman Street
Manchester
M3 3AW
Our reference: IR1-2902155815
Dear J Roberts
Thank you for your email dated 30 December 2020, in which you request
information about Dr Behrouz Alidoost (GMC Number: 6138510) and
information about the number of doctors complained about ,whom we were
unable to identify because complainants did not provide enough
information.
In response to your request I can confirm that Dr Behrouz Alidoost was
erased from the register in 2017, following a Fitness to practise panel
hearing , the hearing determination can be found on the doctor’s entry on
our List of Registered Medical Practitioners: [1]LRMP entry - Dr Behrouz
Alidoost
As to your request for the number of doctors complained about ,whom we
were unable to identify because complainants did not provide enough
information, we don’t have a category for this, so we would have to carry
out manual checks to obtain this information.
There is an exemption at section 12 of the FOIA, which states that we are
not required to comply with a request if we estimate that the cost of
doing so would exceed the appropriate limit, which in this case it would.
I provide further details of the exemption below.
The exemption
The Freedom of Information (Fees and Appropriate Limit) Regulations 2004
has set the ‘appropriate limit’ at £450 for public authorities such as the
GMC. This is equivalent to two and a half days work. In estimating the
cost the public authority can take into account the cost of determining,
locating, retrieving and extracting the information requested. We reserve
the right to refuse requests that would cost in excess of this limit and
will significantly impact on our business.
For 2019 and 2020 there are approximately 4300 closed complaints we would
have to review. We have estimated it would take approximately 5 minutes to
read through one complaint to establish if it related to a doctor
complained about, whom we were unable to identify, because the complainant
did not provide enough information. To read through all 4300 would take
approximately 358 hours. Based on an hourly rate of £25 per hour (which is
set by the Freedom of Information (Fees and Appropriate Limit) Regulations
2004) this would cost us £8950. Your request would therefore cost us
significantly in excess of the ‘appropriate limit’ to process.
Your right to appeal
I'm sorry I couldn’t provide all the information you requested. You can
appeal against this decision to Julian Graves, Information Access Manager.
If you want to appeal, please set out your reasons and email
[2][email address]
You can also appeal to the Information Commissioner, the regulator of the
FOIA – we can provide more details about this if you need them.
Kind regards
Louise
Louise Gormley
Information Access Officer
Resources Directorate
Direct Line: 0161 923 6311
Email: [3][email address]
Website: [4]www.gmc-uk.org
Address: Information Access Team
General Medical Council
3 Hardman Street
Manchester
M3 3AW
Working with doctors Working for patients
The General Medical Council helps to protect patients and improve medical
education and practice in the UK by setting standards for students and
doctors. We support them in achieving (and exceeding) those standards, and
take action when they are not met.
We work to defend the right to FOI for everyone
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