Post by Focus on Jul 29, 2013 7:35:52 GMT
A millionaire doctor who ran an out-of-hours GP service regularly started his shifts three hours late – and sometimes simply didn't turn up, a tribunal heard.
Instead of being on duty visiting sick and dying patients, Ravi Sondhi, 53, was relaxing at his £2.8 million mansion 140 miles away.
Ravi Sondhi, 53, spent time at his Norfolk mansion when he was meant to be running an on-call doctor service for the sick 140 miles away in Croydon
One call worker employed by the out-of-hours service was forced to phone him 114 times before he responded.
Sondhi earned £230,000 a year and took an extra £100,000 in advances for running the Croydoc service in Croydon, South London.
But when he was supposed to be in his surgery ‘on-call’ during the night, advising patients and making house visits, he was actually in his home in Norfolk.
At a hearing into the GP’s fitness to practice, a director at Croydoc said the GP would often turn up late for shifts and sometimes not at all.
Dr John Linney told a Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service hearing in Manchester that his colleague often turned up three hours late.
He said: ‘Dr Sondhi was often late on a Saturday, not logging in until three hours after his due start time. I was generally aware of the shifts he was doing. Starting late on a Saturday was a regular event.’
Patients – including a three-year-old girl suffering breathing difficulties – were told to seek treatment at an accident and emergency department instead.
One 79-year-old patient complaining of vomiting, stomach pain and a high temperature was ‘lost in the system’ and no one knew what happened to him, it was said.
A report by NHS South-West London said Sondhi, and his wife, Dr Salma Uddin, 50, covered 11 per cent of all out-of-hours shifts at Croydoc.
But out of 13,208 home visits carried out during 2009, Sondhi visited only 19 patients.
The hearing was told the GP also failed to follow up unresolved calls or document any appointments he had with patients.
This led to the patients’ own GPs being left in the dark about their medical conditions and not being kept up to date with recent treatment or medication.
Sondhi was suspended and called before the tribunal after a damning report by the NHS which said one patient who waited 12 hours to be seen by Sondhi died the same day.
When a complaint was made against Croydoc, the company claimed it could no longer cope with demand and nearly a million people were without cover at night and weekends.
At the hearing in Manchester, Paul Ozim QC, for the General Medical Council, said Sondhi kept secret an ‘unvarnished truth’ about his position.
The doctor is in : A tribunal heard that Dr Sondhi would be relaxing at this £2.8million eight-bedroom mansion in Norfolk when he was supposed to be in his surgery
He added: ‘When Dr Sondhi was on overnight shift and expected to be available, he was in fact at his home in Norfolk – out of the reach in which he could practically make home visits or attend home addresses.
‘This led to the creation of a system which amounted to the provision of inadequate care.’
Mr Ozim said the GP also took a large amount of money from the Croydoc out-of-hours business in the form of advances.
The hearing was told Sondhi approached Croydoc chief executive Sue Ballon for money for which he would then take responsibility.
He added: ‘On occasions she would tell him that there was insufficient cash flow – on one such occasion he went over her head and told her to pay the money anyway.’
Sondhi’s actions came to light when Mrs Ballon informed auditor Anthony Brand that the GP had made several unauthorized withdrawals totaling £100,000 between July 2008 and August 2009.
When questioned, he promised to pay back the advance through a schedule of repayments, but he failed to do so.
Mr Ozim added: ‘He played it to his advantage, not to tell the unvarnished truth when that is what was demanded of him.
'It wasn’t until Mr Brand wrote to the directors – which dropped with the force of a bombshell – that the directors became aware of the truth.
An NHS report found that nine members of staff resigned while working for Sondhi, pictured at his ongoing fitness to practice tribunal in Manchester
‘It was agreed that it was a fraudulent act and abuse of his position and trust of his fellow directors.’
Mr Ozim went on: ‘He knew his colleagues would take a dim view of it, which they did, would stop it, which they did, and require the money to be repaid, as indeed they did.
'It was a significant falling below the standards required of Dr Sondhi. His conduct was dishonest, he must have known that.’
The hearing was told Sondhi and his wife took on additional shifts and sold some properties in Portugal to repay the money, but despite efforts, £41,910 will never be recovered and was written off in 2010.
The NHS report said that nine staff resigned while working for Sondhi. It found ‘a culture of bullying’ at the organisation and that he used ‘racist and intimidating’ language to staff.
Sondhi’s home is an imposing Edwardian red-brick property near a picturesque rural village. The eight-bedroom property stands at the end of its own 150-yard driveway.
Accessible only by a narrow country lane, it is one of the grandest rural homes in the area.
Sondhi, from Fakenham, Norfolk, denies misconduct charges. The hearing continues.
Arrogant b..tard!! - I hope they throw the book at him, whether they do or just give the cretin a slap on the wrist remains to be seen - Fx
