Doctors who are professionally sanctioned overseas, including for sexual misconduct and patient harm, are able to retain their Irish licences without the public being aware of their offences, an Irish Times investigation has found.
The investigation has identified 11 doctors who have faced serious sanctions in the UK, including being struck off, and who remain registered in Ireland.
In each case, the UK sanction was not recorded on the doctor’s publicly available record published by the Medical Council.
The investigation, conducted alongside 50 international media organisations and co-ordinated by the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, identified dozens of cases of doctors prevented from practising in one country, but continuing to work in another.
RM Block
It is the first time doctors’ misconduct data has been collated on a global basis and raises serious questions about how information on sanctioned doctors is shared between authorities.
The cases examined by The Irish Times include Dr Fabrizio de Rita, a renowned heart surgeon who previously worked in Crumlin Children’s Hospital in Dublin.
Last year, he was struck off the UK’s medical register for sexual misconduct. A fitness-to-practise tribunal found that while working in Freeman Hospital in Newcastle, northeast England, Dr de Rita grabbed a colleague’s breast and “pinged” her bra strap.
However, he remains registered to practise in Ireland and no details of the sexual misconduct findings are listed on his Irish public registry.
In response to queries, Dr de Rita’s lawyer said his client had always denied the “unjust accusations”.
He said a subsequent Italian disciplinary procedure found the UK proceedings were deeply flawed and allowed the doctor to continue practising in Italy. He said the Irish authorities have been made aware of this decision.
Other cases include a specialist doctor registered in Ireland who was last year banned in the UK from carrying out common medical procedures.
These restrictions are recorded on the website of the General Medical Council (GMC) in the UK, but are not mentioned on the Irish Medical Council’s website.
Last January, UK authorities restricted a male doctor from examining women patients alone. The doctor is registered to practise in Ireland, but again these restrictions are not listed on his public registration.
Another 16 cases were found of doctors who were suspended or otherwise sanctioned in Ireland, but are able to continue to practise overseas without any apparent repercussions or restrictions.
This includes Dr Ragheb Nouman, a Romanian doctor struck off after making racist comments against Indian colleagues. Despite being struck off in Ireland in 2022 and the UK in 2016, he practises in a Romanian clinic.
Dr Nouman did not respond to requests for comments.
In another case, Dr Idowu Adeyemi Adeboro was struck off after being found by an Irish court to have engaged in an “elaborate fraud” to gain employment here. However, he remains registered to practise in Iceland.
He did not respond to request for comments.
Cases of concern in other countries include a Romanian doctor who was found by a UK tribunal to have systematically sexually abused children and young men.
He was struck off in the UK, but still practises as a specialist in a Romanian hospital, the investigation found.
In 2020, a UK tribunal found a cosmetic surgeon had inserted breast implants into a patient without her express consent. Today, he remains licensed and practising as a cosmetic surgeon in Spain.
In many countries, including Ireland, a doctor’s disciplinary history is often not publicly available, leaving patients uninformed and potentially vulnerable.
Within the European Union, authorities are supposed to share information on sanctions through the Internal Market Information System (IMI).
However, some European countries, including Malta, Estonia and Greece, rarely use the system while others such as Switzerland do not have access.
The UK stopped using the IMI system after Brexit, but continues to share data with other countries on a bilateral basis, a GMC spokeswoman said. She said it was the responsibility of doctors to disclose sanctions against them.
An Irish Medical Council spokeswoman said in all of the Irish-related cases highlighted the correct processes were followed.
She said the council could not go into detail on individual doctors, in part because some matters are “subject to an ongoing regulatory process”.
There can be “many nuances” in individual cases and sanctions were only made public in certain circumstances which were outlined in regulations, she said.
Asked about potential risks to patient safety in Ireland from doctors sanctioned abroad, she said the council may investigate them.
However, if a doctor made a “declaration” they do not intend to return then it may not be “immediately necessary” to suspend them, she said.
