GP who repeatedly asked woman to remove her veil and lied about her complaint is suspended

A GP who pressed the mother of a child patient to remove her veil during a consultation, then lied to deflect her complaint, has been suspended for nine months by a medical practitioners tribunal.

Keith Wolverson continued to ask the woman to remove her veil after she expressed reluctance and said it was part of her religion, in view of her “poor English.” But her English was fluent and native, the tribunal found, and his response to the complaint had been dishonest.

Wolverson, who worked in areas of Derby and Stoke with large immigrant populations, also wrote derogatory comments about patients’ English language skills in their medical notes, calling them “abysmal,” “completely unacceptable,” “unwilling to speak English,” and “frankly, not good enough” after “being here for five years.”

Wolverson was referred to the General Medical Council by NHS England following the mother’s complaint. Awaiting his hearing, he was sympathetically profiled by the Daily Mail, which quoted the “lifelong Conservative” …