Jail for surgeon who lied to get job that cost trust £2m

A DISGRACED surgeon who lied to land an £84,000-a-year hospital job has been jailed for six years.

Sudip Sarker, 48, duped an expert panel of interviewers, telling them he had performed 51 out of 85 keyhole bowel operations working solo, when in fact the true figure was just six.

What a judge described as his “gross exaggeration” had led to Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust facing more than £2million in medical negligence payouts. Sarker was convicted on Friday at Worcester Crown Court of one count of fraud.

Jacob Hallam QC, prosecuting, said the trust had already paid out £1,970,574 to 18 claims connected to Sarker’s work, while a 19th was still to conclude.

Sarker, who took up the job in August 2011, lasted only a year because of his incompetence, and was stopped from working after another surgeon at the Alexandra Hospital, Redditch, blew the whistle on him.

Mr Hallam told the court that Sarker had a “higher mortality rate” among his patients, and a far higher complication rate.