Doctor suspended over racist WhatsApp messages

A tribunal has suspended Mohammad Sohail's medical licence for 10 months, after he admitted to sending racist WhatsApp messages

A tribunal has found a doctor's fitness to practise to be impaired after he sent racist messages over WhatsApp.

Doctor Mohammad Sohail had accepted a police caution for the content at Solihull Police Station in 2020.

At a Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) hearing, Dr Sohail was unable to explain what he meant by his "extremely offensive" words about black people that he sent to a black woman.

The MPTS imposed a 10-month suspension on Dr Sohail's medical licence at a hearing on Tuesday.

Dr Sohail was a practising consultant at Fairfield Hospital in Manchester and worked in aesthetics and intensive care, the MPTS said.

At the hearing, Dr Sohail reiterated his apology to the victim of his messaging and told the tribunal he was ashamed and saddened by his actions.

He claimed to have not acted in the same manner before or since the events of May 2020, over which he received a police caution later that year.

While he was unable to explain what he had meant by his language, he told the tribunal he was not trying to degrade the victim and that he held no hostility towards black people or any other race.

He also said he did not discriminate and treated all people fairly.

Representing the General Medical Council (GMC), Georgina Goring reminded the tribunal that Dr Sohail had admitted to sending harassing messages that were racially aggravated and that this was clearly misconduct.

She submitted that Dr Sohail had not reflected upon the racial aspects of the messages and had offered no understanding of whether these were beliefs that he held or whether he had done anything to change them.

The tribunal considered Dr Sohail’s evidence that he had been racially abused by the recipient of the messages in a phone call shortly before he sent them, however it had no evidence of the call or its content.

Furthermore, the tribunal found that even if he had been verbally or otherwise abused by the recipient, it was no excuse for the "extremely offensive" language he used towards her.

There was also concern that Dr Sohail had stated his actions were "revenge" on the recipient and that he showed some self pity over the situation in which he found himself.

The tribunal additionally noted that Dr Sohail had previously received a caution for common assault and a subsequent warning from the GMC in relation to an altercation with a female friend in 2014.