GP who was suspended for forging out-of-hours form can resume work to assist in pandemic

A GP who was suspended for forging his supervisor’s signature when he was a trainee may resume work under set conditions, after an emergency physician asked the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) to let him help with the pandemic in hard pressed emergency and intensive care departments.

Joseph Smith was suspended for five months after a tribunal found last December that he had, “in January 2018, dishonestly completed an out-of-hours supervision form in the course of his work, then forged the signature of his supervisor on that form.”

That tribunal found, “This dishonesty was compounded by subsequent repeated denials. In his first …