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A Polish doctor has been found below par to practice (3 May 2013)

Date: 03/05/2013
Duncan Lewis, Legal News Solicitors, A Polish doctor has been found below par to practice

A Polish doctor Dr Wlodzimierz Szepielow, a neurologist, was found to be a risk of serious harm to patients by a panel.
He was initially suspended from Ninewells Hospitals in Dundee after the death of one of his patients from a prolonged seizure. He needed 52 per cent to pass a knowledge test last year but achieved only 17.5 per cent. The score was the lowest an assessor with more than 15 years experience could remember.
On Thursday the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service found the consultant doctor’s continued work could lead to the death of patients. It said his performance had “deteriorated” since he was last assessed in 2010 and was now “beyond remediation”.
Dr Malcolm Phillips, the tribunal panel chairman, said the panel came to the conclusion that Dr Szepielow was beyond remediation.
The panel has noted the time scale for remediation as judged by the assessors. Their view was that remediation would take an excessive amount of time with remote chances of success.
The panel has noted that there were a number of clinical scenarios in which Dr Szepielow's performance was found to be unacceptable, and some of which if done in a real life scenario could lead to the death of patients.
He added Dr Szepielow's serious departure from Good Medical Practice, as concluded by the assessment team, shows behaviour which is not in line of being a doctor. Dr Szepielow's lack of insight into his deficiencies may result in serious harm to patients through incompetence.
To protect patients and in a wider public interest erasure was the only means which would maintain public trust and confidence in the profession he said.
Dr Szepielow's performance was found to be unacceptable in the areas of assessment, treatment, investigations, maintaining good medical practice and in his relationship with patients.
His scores were “below all outliers” on criteria including the neurological examination of the upper limb, telephone advice and male seizure, Dr Phillips said.
Following his arrival in the UK in 2005 Dr Szepielow was the subject of several complaints by patients as well as concerns raised by colleagues over the following two years.
A review of a selection of Dr Szepielow's outpatients led to his suspension by the Tayside NHS Trust in 2007 after the death of a patient with status epilepticus - a prolonged seizure.
The GMC launched an assessment of the neurologist’s professional performance when he was brought to its attention in 2009 and in July 2011 it found Dr Szepielow 's “deficient professional performance” was harming his fitness to practice, but allowed him to continue to work under special conditions for 18 months.
Following his performance in the knowledge test and additional medical exams last year he was suspended from practice in March.

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