A GP who continued working after being suspended for asking a Muslim woman to remove her veil has been struck off.
Dr Keith Wolverson was suspended for misconduct after he repeatedly asked the woman to remove her niqab during an appointment, which she eventually did.
He later said it was because she ‘spoke poor English’ and he was ‘struggling to understand her’.
But her English was fluent and native, a tribunal found, and his response to the complaint had been dishonest.
During his nine-month suspension he continued to undertake work, and went against the ‘explicit advice’ he had been given by a misconduct panel.
Due to his ‘flagrant disregard for the regulatory process’ and his failure to attend the Medical Practitioners Tribunal hearing, he has now been struck off.
In 2022, Dr Wolverson was found guilty of or admitted a total of 17 charges of misconduct, relating to incidents between January and May 2018 while working as a locum at urgent care centres in Derby and Stoke.
One incident at Royal Stoke University Hospital saw him ask a Muslim woman, named only as Mrs Q by the tribunal, to take off her niqab three times during a consultation on May 13, 2018, saying he could not hear her describing her daughter’s symptoms.
She refused his initial request, saying she did not want to for religious reasons, but he then repeated it.
Her husband complained and the woman told a hearing that she felt ‘victimised and racially discriminated’ against during the consultation.
In an email later that month in response to the complaint, Dr Wolverson said she ‘spoke poor English’, and that he was ‘struggling to understand her’ and was ‘trying to look at her mouth movements to aid communication’, which the tribunal deemed to be dishonest.
It was also found that Dr Wolverson refused to speak to Mrs Q’s husband despite his attempts to communicate with the doctor, which Dr Wolverson later claimed was because he ‘found his manner aggressive and intimidating’.
Dr Wolverson’s legal representative admitted the doctor had been ‘insensitive’.
In other incidents, he wrote in the notes of 15 patients criticising their English speaking skills and those of their relatives between January and April 2018, claiming it was ‘unacceptable’ and ‘not good enough’.
At a review hearing in 2023, Dr Wolverson said that in the years he was practicing before his suspension he had not asked any other patients to remove their veil and there had been no ‘repetition of his misconduct’.
Since his suspension in October 2022, he said he had reflected on the incidents, had considered how he would handle similar situations differently and ‘deeply regretted the comments he made in the patients’ medical notes’.
He told the tribunal ‘it would be completely wrong to maintain the suspension and prohibit a doctor further from doing his duty to his patients when there are such grave shortages within the NHS currently’.
Dr Wolverson said at the time: ‘I have undertaken training about Medical ethics, Honesty and Probity.’
The tribunal ruled that Dr Wolverson had not ‘provided evidence of his increased insight into his actions to a sufficient level’ and so his ‘fitness to practise remains impaired by reason of his misconduct’.
The tribunal decided not to extend his suspension but imposed conditions on his registration for a further 12 months.
He later returned to work under supervision due to ‘grave shortages within the NHS’.
However, in 2024 it was uncovered that he had undertaken locum shifts while he was suspended back in 2022.
Now a tribunal has found he had ‘disengaged’ with the process and the consequences of his misconduct entirely.
The tribunal decided that there was a risk of repetition and that he should be struck off.
Emma Gilberthorpe, chairing the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service hearing, said: ‘When considering sanction, the Tribunal reminded itself of the nature of the misconduct and Dr Wolverson’s ongoing lack of insight and remediation.’
She added: ‘The Tribunal noted that Dr Wolverson has not worked since 2022. This was a real concern with regards to deskilling. There was no evidence to demonstrate that he has kept his knowledge and skills up to date.
‘The longer he failed to engage with the regulatory process, the greater this risk became.
‘Although the original allegation did not in itself establish current risk to patient safety, his continued lack of practice and disengagement meant that risk had now developed and increased over time.
‘The Tribunal was of the view that Dr Wolverson’s continued failure to engage, combined with a prolonged period out of practice, undermined public confidence.
‘The public would expect reassurance that such concerns were being addressed, and in the absence of any engagement or evidence of remediation, that confidence was diminished.
‘Dr Wolverson had failed to use previous periods of suspension constructively, had remained disengaged throughout, and had shown a persistent and flagrant disregard for the regulatory process registration.
‘The tribunal concluded that any lesser sanction would fail to address the current and ongoing risk to public protection and would not adequately reflect the seriousness of Dr Wolverson’s misconduct.’
