A doctor has been struck off after lying about a previous job where concerns about his clinical performance were raised.

Mohammad Marash Saleemi joined Medway Maritime Hospital in Gillingham after lying to hospital bosses that "serious failures" had been identified about his ability to practise safely.

He passed an interview and worked at the hospital for seven days after hiding issues previously raised by his former employers.

A three-person panel from the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) found his misconduct and poor performance put patients in Medway "at serious risk of harm" after an investigation by the General Medical Council (GMC).

Chairman Linda Lee described Dr Saleemi's conduct as "deplorable" and erased his name from the medical register with immediate effect during a hearing last month.

Ceri Widdett, on behalf of the GMC, said his dishonesty showed a "lack of regard for patient safety" adding assessors found his performance to be "deficient".

She told the hearing Medway hospital bosses were unable to verify his references and had "no knowledge of the prescribing concerns" through his failure to disclose his previous employment.

Catherine Stock, representing Dr Saleemi, told the panel her client "accepted his fitness to practise is impaired" through his actions but added he was not an "inherently dishonest person".

She added Dr Saleemi worked for the Medway NHS Trust for a short time "without incident" after passing an interview "without any issues".

The tribunal heard how after qualifying as a doctor in Romania in 2014, he returned to the UK in 2017 and worked as a junior doctor at the Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust.

In three days in July, Dr Saleemi failed a pharmacy exam - scoring just 11.4% with six serious errors - an immediate life support course as managers in the gynaecology and obstetrics department said they were worried about his appointment.

He was given an action plan to improve.

In August, senior staff again raised concerns about his "lack of progress in safe prescribing and failure to meet the level of clinical knowledge" and he failed the pharmacy exam again in September.

Dr Saleemi resigned that month and left in October 2017 and his performance was referred to the GMC for investigation.

Before leaving, Dr Saleemi had already applied to the Medway NHS Trust, completing a form saying it was his first job in the UK.

He later lied in a statement saying he was unemployed between March and November 2017 - the time he had been working in London.

Mrs Lee said in her concluding report: "The tribunal was satisfied Dr Saleemi's unacceptably low standard of performance had the potential to put patients at unwarranted risk of harm and had the potential to bring the medical profession into disrepute.

"More seriously, [his] dishonesty concealed his deficient professional performance and put the patients at Medway at serious risk of harm. His actions had the potential to greatly undermine public confidence in the profession.

"Erasure is the only proportionate sanction to promote and maintain public confidence in the medical profession."

The NHS says it has "robust pre-employment checks" and procedures to flag concerns which were all carried out before Dr Saleemi was appointed in Medway.

"He failed to disclose his previous employment at Lewisham and Greenwich Trust on his application," said Medway NHS Trust executive director for human resources and organisational development, Leon Hinton.

"The consequence of his action was that we were therefore unable to check his employment reference.

"At the time of our pre-employment check with the GMC, there were no concerns registered on Mr Saleemi’s record. As soon as we became aware that Mr Saleemi had been referred to the GMC, we began a formal investigation which resulted in his immediate dismissal. Mr Saleemi was physically in post at the Trust for just seven days.

"Good medical practice requires doctors to behave in an 'honest and trustworthy' manner and we fully support the outcome of the GMC’s investigation."

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