Lying doctor
Broadmoor trainee psychiatrist told colleagues she had breast cancer and misled them about medical experience
A JUNIOR doctor at a secure mental hospital has been banned from treating patients after she lied to colleagues about having breast cancer.
Trainee psychiatrist Dr Amina Rafi, 25, falsely claimed she had had surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy for the disease. The doctor, who was working at Broadmoor Hospital in Berkshire, the secure psychiatric unit where Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe and London nail bomber David Copeland are patients, never had the condition.
Rafi’s lies began to unravel in June last year – four months after she began working at the hospital – when senior colleagues became suspicious about her qualifications.
She eventually broke down and confessed to lying about having breast cancer. She also admitted exaggerating her medical experience, lying about being a member of the Royal College of Physicians and pretending she was four years older than she was. Rafi, of Reading, said she was anxious about getting breast cancer because there was a history of it in her family. At the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service in Manchester, she admitted dishonest misconduct and was suspended from practising for nine months.
Ciaran Rankin, representing the General Medical Council, said: ‘The doctor deliberately misled colleagues on a number of occasions.’ He added that evidence was obtained showing she was lying but ‘it took a lengthy period’ before she admitted misleading anyone.
Rafi, a Leeds University medical school graduate, admitted lying about the cancer, but added: ‘I had anxiety about breast cancer because
‘Put patient safety at risk’
there was a strong history of it in the family.’
She said her time at Broadmoor was ‘the worst in my professional life’ and claimed she was stressed by ‘the death of a long-standing patient and the collapse of a member of staff in the car park’. She added: ‘I felt unsupported and blamed for the death of the patient.’
Panel chairman Kim Parsons said: ‘Dr Rafi’s dishonesty had the potential to put patient safety at Broadmoor at risk.’
Mrs Parsons said colleagues may have given her medical opinion undue weight, and she missed opportunities to put the record straight.
‘Any sanction lower than suspension would not be sufficient to protect the public or maintain public confidence in doctors,’ added Mrs Parsons.