'Racist' GP who 'took £100,000 from the NHS, was 125 miles away in NORFOLK when he should have been running an out of hours service in Croydon'

Dr Ravi Sondhi, 52, was uncontactable at his home in Fakenham, Norfolk

He was meant to provide cover for nearly a million in London and Surrey

Sondhi's fitness to practise tribunal started in Manchester yesterday



Dr Ravi Sondhi is facing a fitness to practise tribunal in Manchester over his role as a director of an out-of-hours service

A £230,000-a-year GP ran a Croydon out-of-hours service for nearly a million patients from his Norfolk home 125 miles away, a tribunal heard.

Dr Ravi Sondhi, 52, also took £100,000 from Croydoc, an NHS-funded out-of-hours service and took up to three hours to answer urgent calls, it is claimed.

Sondhi was often uncontactable at his home in Fakenham, Norfolk, when he was supposed to be on duty, forcing patients to go to accident and emergency instead, a Medical Practitioners Service Tribunal heard.

Sondhi, who also owned a string of care homes, also allegedly made a series of racist comments in emails.

In one message he asked: ‘Did you know Jamaicans are immune to swine flu as they are swines anyway?’

He told a colleague: ‘My computer has inherited a black virus. It does not want to work’, it is claimed.

One said: ‘Of course we are on a permanent holiday. We learnt it when we went to Africa,' while another read: ‘Bloody foreigner. She probably wants Jamaican ginger cakes, Jaffa cakes and black and white Hobnobs.’

Sondhi, who was suspended by the service in 2009, had taken unauthorised cash advances of up to £80,000 for himself and his wife, Dr Salma Uddin, who also worked for the service, by November 2008 the tribunal heard.

By 2009, this had risen to £100,000 more than the couple were entitled to from Croydoc.

A damning report by NHS Croydon last year found that Sondhi consistently failed to answer the telephone when on call, with 144 answered calls logged in only one evening.

He took as long as three hours to respond to urgent calls instead of the 20 minute target and repeatedly cancelled shifts without warning.



The panel heard that up to three quarters of patients phoning the service were referred to A&E during some of his overnight shifts .

On one occasion a three-year-old girl with breathing difficulties had to be taken to hospital after three failed attempts to contact Sondhi.

Paul Ozin QC, for the General Medical Council, told the Manchester hearing: ‘It was obvious the taking of advances without authority from the board was wrong.

‘It was not a one-off, although it was perhaps presented as one by Dr Sondhi when he purported to tell the board when it became inescapable.

‘Dr Sondhi had plenty of time to bring it to the attention of the board.'

In 2007 Sondhi approached Croydoc's chief executive Sue Ballon, who was also suspended, saying he ‘urgently needed’ an advance against his salary and said he would take responsibility for it.

On one occasion he went over Ms Ballon's head to get the money when she told him there were insufficient funds.

Sondhi was described as a ‘dominant figure’ who was able to ‘do as he wanted’ and was not kept in check by a ‘weak’ board of directors.

Croydoc’s auditor, Anthony Brand, discovered the irregularities in July 2009.

But Sondhi continued to lie, telling Mr Brand he had informed the board and they were happy with what he was doing, the tribunal heard.



In August 2009, Mr Brand sent a 'bombshell' letter to Croydoc's directors about the payments, which were then branded as a 'fraudulent act' and 'serious abuse of his position' in a directors' meeting.

The debt was to be paid back by Sondi and Uddin by working shifts for the company.



But £41,910 was written off at the end of 2010 with 'no realistic prospect of recovery,' said Mr Ozin.

Croydoc, founded in 1995, won lucrative NHS contracts from Croydon, Kingston, and Sutton and Merton primary care trusts to provide out-of-hours care for nearly a million patients.



Under Sondhi’s leadership the company introduced ‘segmenting’, where only one doctor would be on hand to cover all three areas.

Sondhi is also said to have been verbally aggressive, intimidating, and abusive towards colleagues and sent to have sent racist messages

Mr Odin said the arrangement was 'manifestly inadequate'.



The GMC alleges that Sondhi lied to fellow directors in order to mislead them over how much cover was provided. Croydoc has since been replaced as the out-of-hours service provider.

Sondhi could be struck off from the medical register or suspended if his fitness to practise is found to be impaired by misconduct.

He is accused of failing to provide good clinical care to patients and failing to ensure that an adequate level of doctor cover was available.

It is also claimed that he was unavailable to make home visits or to see patients while on duty.

He is accused of failing to act 'with probity' and misleading his fellow Croydoc directors over the financial advances he took from the service.

Sondi is also alleged to have been verbally aggressive, intimidating, and abusive towards colleagues and to have sent racist messages.