Rainham GP struck off after cancer-error notes changed

Dr Rahim saw the patient at the Church View Practice in Rainham twice in January 2018

A GP who failed to spot a patient's lung cancer and falsified records months later has been struck off.

Dr Adilya Sicilda Abdul Rahim saw the patient with a chronic cough in January 2018 but changed the woman's notes that August after the cancer was diagnosed.

The doctor used those notes to respond to the patient, who complained to the Church View Practice in Rainham, Kent.

In a ruling, the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) said Dr Rahim's actions were "wholly inappropriate".

The Church View Practice declined to comment and said it was unclear where Dr Rahim had gone to work after leaving a couple of years ago. The BBC was unable to contact Dr Rahim.

The MPTS ruling, which followed a hearing last month, said the patient had complained of the cough and shortness of breath when she saw Dr Rahim on 2 and 16 January 2018 but was not referred for an X-ray on either occasion.

'Clinical failure'

In her original records, Dr Rahim recorded the woman had shortness of breath and her chest felt tight.

But in August 2018, after learning the patient had been diagnosed with lung cancer, she changed that to say the woman had no shortness of breath and her chest felt tight.

When the patient complained to the General Medical Council in January 2019, Dr Rahim used the amended notes to pretend the patient had said she had no shortness of breath, the ruling said.

She claimed she changed the notes because she had used the patient's record for a "personal learning exercise", but the MPTS said her account "lacked credibility".

Instead, the MPTS said it was "compelled to the view" the doctor had amended the documents "to defend any anticipated criticism...of her clinical failure".

The tribunal said it accepted Dr Rahim was a "good clinician" and her behaviour was a "serious aberration from her normal working practice and integrity".

But it said Dr Rahim showed "no evidence of insight and remediation into her dishonest conduct" and her actions "went to the heart of patient trust".