Dodgy doctor Ravi Sondhi abused out of hours GP service for Kingston, Merton, Croydon and Sutton, report reveals

The investigation revealed shocking details about Dr Ravi Sondhi, who was previously head of Croydoc, which provided the out-of-hours GP service to patients in Croydon, Kingston, Merton and Sutton.

In a catalogue of abuses, Sondhi was found to have:

• Withdrawn over £100,000 from Croydoc without authority

• Provided the out-of-hours service for south west London patients from his home in Norfolk

• Repeatedly failed to answer telephone calls when he was on call, including one occasion when 114 calls were logged to his phone overnight

• Took between one-and-a-half and three hours to respond to urgent calls when the standard target was 20 minutes

• Failed to record his actions following out of hours calls, with over 250 “unresulted” calls listed

• Repeatedly cancelled his shifts without warning

• Took substantial sums of money from his own practice staff, who believed he was investing it on their behalf

The report said the Croydoc Board failed to take action and the commissioning bodies (the Primary Care Trusts) failed “satisfactorily to monitor” the Croydoc contract.

Dr Sondhi has since been declared bankrupt, suspended and is awaiting a General Medical Council hearing into his conduct.

Croydoc was closed as a company and the out-of-hours service Patient Care 24 took over providing the out of hours service.

Dr Dave Finch, Joint Medical Director, NHS South West London said: “This report reveals a shocking series of failings by one GP who apparently managed to dupe his professional colleagues whilst letting down his patients and claimed payment for work he did not do.

“I want to reassure patients that this incident is about out of hours services that were provided in 2009.

“There is now a new organisation called PatientCare 24 providing out of hours services.

“We are confident that this organisation is providing a safe and effective service to patients.”

Read the report here