Two GP partners are suspended after falsifying QOF data to try to save their practice

Two GP partners who falsified Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) data in patient records in an effort to prevent their practice from being closed after it was put in special measures by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) have been suspended from the UK medical register for 12 months.

Syed Imam and Tariq Aziz Siddiqui were partners at the Cleveland Surgery in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, when in January 2018 it scored just 65% of the total number of QOF points available for undertaking patient reviews. The QOF is a way that the CQC, the local clinical commissioning group (CCG), and NHS England monitor the quality of the output from a GP practice. The CCG average is 94% and the national average is 96%.

A subsequent inspection that November found that the surgery was still below average, but much improved, leading …