GP found guilty of professional misconduct for providing fake indemnity insurance documents
Seán McCárthaigh
A GP who provided fraudulent certificates to suggest he had professional indemnity insurance while working for over four and a half years in Dublin has been found guilty of professional misconduct.
A fitness-to-practise committee of the Medical Council found four allegations of professional misconduct proven against Chasib Al-Maliky from Artane, Dubin in relation to providing false documents and making false declarations to suggest he had professional indemnity insurance.
The committee also made a separate finding of poor professional performance against Dr Al-Maliky for prescribing oestrogen to five patients at the Centric Health clinic in Donaghmede, Dublin without also prescribing progesterone, which was “clinically inappropriate.”
The chairperson of the inquiry, Paul Harkin, said Dr Al-Maliky had provided certificates purporting to show he was insured by the Medical Protection Society, which he knew were false and misleading.
Harkin said the GP should have known that submitting such documents to his employers, Locomotion Limited and Centric Health, was dishonest.
He said allegations were proven beyond reasonable doubt that Dr Al-Maliky had practised medicine between January 2nd, 2015 and July 14th, 2017 and again between July 6th, 2021 and March 31st, 2023 at a range of locations without having professional indemnity insurance.
The inquiry heard that the doctor had also made false declarations in his annual retention forms to the Medical Council for 2022 and 2023 that he had the required statutory professional indemnity cover.
An expert witness for the Medical Council, Triona Marnell, had told the inquiry that it “beggars belief” that Dr Al-Maliky would have treated patients without having indemnity insurance cover in place.
Dr Marnell said it was “concerning” that he had practised without such cover for such a long period when he was exposing patients to potential harm.
Harkin said Dr Al-Maliky’s conduct was conduct which doctors of experience, competence and good repute would find “disgraceful or dishonourable,” while it also represented a serious falling short of the standards expected of doctors.
The committee also found an allegation of poor professional performance proven for the prescribing by Dr Al-Maliky of oestrogen to five women without adding progesterone while he worked as a locum at the Centric Health clinic in Donaghmede between April and July 2023.
The inquiry heard that taking oestrogen without progesterone can thicken the uterus lining, which can increase the risk of cancer.
Another doctor from the same clinic said all five patients had been identified and none had suffered any physical harm as a result of the failure to be prescribed progesterone.
Harkin said Dr Al-Maliky had failed to meet the standards of competence in terms of knowledge and skill that could reasonably be expected of medical practitioners.
The GP did not attend any of the hearings during a three-day inquiry.
Counsel for the GP, Ray Motherway BL, told the committee in February that Dr Al-Maliky was absent due to ill health and was receiving treatment in the UK.
Harkin said the committee would forward its report of the inquiry to the Medical Council, but would not disclose the sanction it would recommend to be imposed on the doctor.
