GP accused of stealing £100,000 from NHS 'was at home when he should have been on duty 125 miles away', tribunal hears

Dr Ravi Sondhi, 52, abused his position as financial director of the Croydon Doctors on Call (Croydoc) and took £100,000 from the NHS-funded out-of-hours service, it is claimed.

He was often uncontactable at his home in Fakenham, Norfolk when he was supposed to be on duty, forcing patients to go to A&E, the Medical Practitioners Service Tribunal heard.

Croydoc was set up in 1995 as a cooperative group of local GP's before winning lucrative NHS contracts from Croydon, Kingston and Sutton and Merton PCT's to provide out-of-hours care to patients.

The service was responsible for providing out-of-hours care to almost a million patients.

Sondhi, a GP at Portland Medical Centre, in South Norwood, who owned a string of care homes, also allegedly made a series of racist comments in emails, and asked in one message 'Did you know Jamaicans are immune to swine flu as they are swines anyway?'

He told a colleague: 'My computer has inherited a black virus. It does not want to work', it is claimed.

Sondhi took unauthorised financial advances for him and his wife, Dr Salma Uddin, who also worked for the service, of up to £80,000 against their salaries, the tribunal heard.

By 2009 he had taken £100,000 more than the couple were entitled to.

'It was obvious the taking of advances without authority from the board was wrong,' said Paul Ozin QC, for the General Medical Council.

'It was not a one off, although it was perhaps presented as one by Dr Sondhi when he purported to tell the board when it became inescapable.

'Dr Sondhi had plenty of time to bring it to the attention of the board.

'We invite you to draw the inference he chose not to do so as he knew they would take a dim view of his actions, as indeed they did; they would stop it, as indeed they did; and require money to be repaid, as indeed they did.

Mr Ozin added: 'Dr Sondhi got through getting on for two years without anybody knowing about it.

'By any ordinary standards of behaviour his conduct was dishonest and he must have known that.'

In 2007 Sondhi approached Chief Executive Sue Ballon saying he 'urgently needed' an advance against his salary and said he would take responsibility for it.

On one occasion, when Ms Ballon told him there were insufficient funds he went over her head to get the money.

Sondhi was described as a 'dominant figure' who was able to 'do as he wanted' and was not checked by a 'weak' board of directors.

Croydoc's auditor, Anthony Brand, discovered the irregularities in July 2009.

But Dr Sondhi continued to lie, telling Mr Brand he had informed the board and they were happy with what he was doing, the tribunal heard.

It was not until August 2009 that Mr Brand sent a letter, which came as a 'bombshell' to Croydoc's directors.

'Matters came to a head when Croydoc's auditor Anthony Brand began asking questions and requiring confirmation that the board had been informed and requesting proposals for Dr Sondhi to repay the money owed,' said Mr Ozin.

In a special meeting of directors the payments were branded as a 'fraudulent act and 'serious abuse of his position'.

It was agreed to formalise the debt, which was to be paid back by Sondhi and Uddin from shifts worked for the company.

'The end result of all of this was that the sum of £41,910 made by way of advances was never recovered and was written off at the end of the 2010 as an exceptional item with no realistic prospect of recovery,' said Mr Ozin.

Croydoc was set up in 1995 as a cooperative group of local GP's before winning lucrative NHS contracts from Croydon, Kingston and Sutton and Merton PCT's to provide out-of-hours care to patients.

The service was responsible for providing out-of-hours care to almost a million patients.

But under Dr Sondhi's leadership the company developed a practice which became known as 'segmenting', whereby just one doctor would be on hand to cover all three areas.

'The GMC's case in relation to segmenting of the overnight shifts is that it is a practice that resulted in a provision of inadequate cover,' said Mr Odin QC.

'It was manifestly inadequate. We say that was why Dr Sondhi did not tell the board that was what was going on because he knew the board would have stopped it.'

The GMC allege Dr Sondhi lied to fellow directors in order to mislead them as to the level of cover actually provided.

In November 2009, Dr Sondhi was suspended, prompting NHS Croydon to launch an investigation, the results of which were published in a damning report last January.

It found Dr Sondhi consistently failed to answer the telephone when on call, with 144 unanswered calls logged in a single evening.

He also took as long as three hours to respond to urgent calls, when the target was 20 minutes, and repeatedly cancelled shifts without warning.

The panel heard on some of his overnight shifts up to three quarters of patients phoning the service were referred to A&E.

On one occasion a three-year-old girl with breathing difficulties had to be taken to hospital after three failed attempts to contact Dr Sondhi.

In one of his racist messages he said: 'Of course we are on a permanent holiday. We learnt it when we went to Africa.'

Another read: 'Bloody foreigner. She probably wants Jamaican ginger cakes, Jaffar cakes and black and white Hobnobs.'

Croydoc out-of-hours service has now been replaced by PC24.

Dr Sondhi was sacked in 2010 and is currently suspended while his case is considered by the MPTS.

He had also been a GP at Portland Medical Centre, in South Norwood, but his NHS agreement was terminated when he was found to be in breach of contract for entering into an individual voluntary agreement due to his mounting debts.

The GMC allege Dr Sondhi failed to act with probity in his financial dealings as a director 'Croydoc' and that his actions were dishonest and misleading in connection with financial advances he took from the service.

Dr Sondhi is accused of failing to provide good clinical care to patients and failing to ensure that an adequate level of doctor cover was available.

It is also claimed that, when on duty, he was unavailable to make home visits or to see patients.

He is also alleged to have misled fellow directors over the level of doctor cover which had been arranged, been verbally aggressive, intimidating, and abusive towards colleagues and sent racist messages.

If Dr Sondhi's fitness to practise if found to be impaired by reason of misconduct he could face a range of sanctions including conditions of practice, suspension or erasure from the Medical Register.

The hearing continues.