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A Wirral doctor who lied to police about altering a death certificate has been cleared to return to work.
Dr Raisah Sawati has spent the past two years subject to specific working conditions after it was found that she had given untrue statements to police while working at Arrowe Park Hospital in April 2020, according to Birkenhead News.
A Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service report detailed how during the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr Sawati returned to the Upton hospital having been transferred to Clatterbridge. It was during this time that she completed two cremation forms for two patients who had died while not operating under direct supervision as intended.
Allegedly, she altered part of a death certificate, and she completed cremation forms, knowing she may've been able to claim a fee for doing so. Discrepancies in the documentation were identified by her supervising consultant, who reissued the paperwork.
Pending investigation, she was suspended, and the matter was transferred to the police and the General Medical Council and the police.
In June 2020, Dr Sawati gave an account of how she completed the paperwork, which wasn't found to be true. She went on to admit the allegations before a tribunal hearing in 2024.
Dr Sawati had been practising as an Internal Medicine Trainee at Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. Since March this year, she has been employed as a Trainee Medicolegal Adviser with Medic Law on a fixed-term six-month contract.
Her first tribunal, two years ago, accepted that the original conditions requiring her to be supervised at all times had been breached inadvertently, rather than as a deliberate attempt to evade supervision, particularly given the rapidly changing clinical environment during the early stages of the pandemic.
It also accepted that the untrue statements she made during the police interview were the result of stress and panic, rather than a deliberate attempt to mislead or deceive.
A recent hearing found she had made "substantial progress in further developing both her insight and remediation" after being assessed.
Dr Sawati's mentor, known only as Professor A, gave testimony stating: "From the outset, Dr Sawati was entirely candid regarding both her professional history and the challenges she has faced. In my discussions with her, I found her insight to be genuine, mature, and well developed."
Professor A added: "What impressed me most was not simply her insight but the persistence with which she has sought opportunities to demonstrate rehabilitation and rebuild her professional standing."
The tribunal further considered that there was no evidence that Dr Sawati posed a risk to the public.
A report issued last week, which removed the remaining conditions of practice, said: "In any future clinical role, she would initially practise at a level requiring appropriate supervision and oversight, providing an additional safeguard while she continued to rebuild her clinical experience."
As a result, she is free to return to full work as a doctor with immediate effect.
