General Medical Council v Mr Omer Karim –EAT judgment

The Employment Appeal Tribunal (“EAT”) has today (12th June 2023) handed down its judgment allowing the GMC’s Appeal against the Reading Employment Tribunal’s (“ET”) Judgment dated 21 June 2021.  

The EAT concluded that the original ET judgment upholding Mr Karim’s complaints of direct race discrimination cannot stand, and the appeal must be allowed.  The EAT held that there were “inescapable conflicts or contradictions between certain of the findings it made along the way.”  The ET “also described its conclusions on the question of which particular race discrimination complaints were upheld, with too broad a brush.”

In its judgment the EAT noted that the Tribunal was very troubled by the picture which it found, of a context in which BME doctors are over-represented in GMC referrals, investigations and with adverse outcomes.  The process relating to a case against a BME doctor, Mr Karim was – in the tribunal’s view – needlessly prolonged; in which allegations against a non-BME doctor arising out of some of the same incidents were resolved appreciably sooner.  There was no system for proactively monitoring or analysing the length of time which each case was taking to progress and complete to help ensure fairness.

Mr Karim, supported by the BMA and his legal team, will now begin to consider next steps in his continued fight for justice in ensuring that the GMC address the unfairness and racial bias that BME doctors seem to be routinely afflicted with during their fitness to practice proceedings.

The case has been remitted to be heard by a freshly constituted Employment Tribunal to determine the complaints that the GMC directly discriminated Mr Karim because of his race by:

1.       The decision to apply for a second time to the Interim Orders Panel in February 2015;

2.       The failure to progress the same allegation against a white colleague;

3.       Proceeding with the complaints despite forming the view that the allegations were made by an unreliable complainer;

4.       The delay in dealing with the complaints.

Quote: Mr Karim said

“The decision of the EAT is very disappointing. The GMC was incredulous at the ET judgment. We will continue to fight to ensure the GMC recognises and makes changes to improve its conduct towards BME doctors. We hope, that in time, justice will prevail.”

Quote: Shazia Khan, Founding Partner Cole Khan Solicitors said:

“The EAT ruled that whilst there was a proper basis on which the Tribunal could have upheld the complaints of race discrimination the Tribunal just didn’t set out its full reasoning and applied a too broad-brush approach in its written judgment.   This is incredibly unfortunate for my client who has been waiting since 2017 to secure vindication and justice.  We are reflecting on next steps in our quest for justice for Mr Karim and all BME Doctors.”

 Background

Mr Karim was a consultant urological surgeon and one of the country’s top robotic surgeons for prostate cancer.  He worked at Heatherwood and Wexham Park Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, (now the Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust.) The Trust commenced several investigations into his conduct, eventually referring him to the GMC. After three and a half years of investigations, the GMC subjected him to a Fitness to Practice Tribunal.  None of the contested allegations were found to be proven and the Tribunal determined that Mr Karim had not committed any act of misconduct. Mr Karim argued that while the investigations into his conduct continued for years, similar complaints against a white colleague were quickly dropped.  In August 2018 Dr Karim brought claims against the GMC, including a claim of direct race discrimination against the GMC and in 2021 an Employment Tribunal found that that claim was well founded, and he won his direct race discrimination claims, finding that the GMC was ‘looking for material to support allegations against the claimant rather than fairly assessing matters presented’. The panel concluded the GMC’s referral procedure may be, ‘infected with discrimination’.

Mr Karim’s case is supported by the British Medical Association: BMA PRESS RELEASE

Link to Judgment of the EAT: EAT Judgment

Notes to Editors: Mr Karim is represented by Shazia Khan of Cole Khan Solicitors LLP.  His barristers are Karon Monaghan KC of Matrix Chambers & Jeffrey Jupp of 7BR.