Children's doctor sex offending "seriously undermined public trust in profession", tribunal told

Sexual offences carried out by a children’s doctor in Kent has “seriously undermined public trust” in the medical profession, a tribunal has heard.

Dr Salman Siddiqi, a 45-year-old man from east London, was jailed last year after admitting attempting to meet someone he thought to be a 14-year-old boy for sex at the Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother (QEQM) Hospital in Margate.

The General Medical Council argued, on the second day of a Medical Practitioners Tribunal, that Siddiqi’s fitness to practise had been impaired by his offending.

Barrister Nigel Grundy, GMC counsel, told the three-person panel: “Here you have a case of conviction for, in the view of the GMC, very serious sexual offences which can only seriously undermine the public trust in the profession.

“The commission of these offences… breaches fundamental tenets of the medical profession.”

Siddiqi had previously been suspended from practising as a doctor for one month after receiving a police caution for exposing himself in an east London park in 2019, the tribunal heard.

“The relevance of that previous case is that as of July 2022, the tribunal were persuaded that Dr Siddiqi had taken steps to remediate his behaviour and was continuing to take steps to address his behaviour, despite that he went on to commit these serious offences,” Mr Grundy added.

Siddiqi, who is currently serving a 28-month prison sentence, did not attend the virtual hearing.

The doctor’s written statement to the tribunal detailed “the effect the commission of these offences had on him and his family” but “does not refer to the effect this would have on the public and how that would undermine trust in the medical profession”.

The tribunal is due to impose a sanction this week. The hearing continues.

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