A former consultant neurologist at Ninewells Hospital in Dundee who scored only 17.5% in an applied knowledge test has been struck off.
Dr Wlodzimierz Szepielow was judged to be so poor at his job that the Medical Practitioners’ Tribunal Service was told he could cause patients to die.
His serious departure from good medical practice showed behaviour “fundamentally incompatible with being a doctor”, the judgement declared.
The MPTS panel concluded that erasure from the register was the only means of protecting patients and the public interest, and maintaining trust and confidence in the profession.
Dr Szepielow, who came to the UK from Poland in 2005, was given a consultant neurologist post by NHS Tayside but over the next two years many complaints were received from patients.
Concerns were raised by colleagues and, after his work was reviewed, he was suspended in 2007 after the death of a patient from a brain seizure.
The Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh was concerned he did not have the clinical skills necessary for independent practice but did not consider he should be referred to the General Medical Council.
Dr Szepielow next worked at the outpatient clinics at Western General Hospital in Edinburgh, but he was found to be not competent in neurology or general medical knowledge. He was referred to the GMC, which thought he showed some evidence of wanting to remedy his failures but was not taking a systematic or effective approach to improve.
Some of his difficulties at Ninewells resulted from his unfamiliarity with the culture, processes and procedures of the NHS, the NMC panel stated.
Conditions were imposed on his registration and in 2012 his contract was terminated.
He did an applied knowledge test and scored “a lamentably low” 17.5%, well below the standard mark of 52% and the lowest mark one examiner had ever seen.
He was judged not fit to practice, and panel chair Dr Malcolm Phillips said there was “little evidence of effective remediation by Dr Szepielow.