A newly qualified doctor has been suspended after she was caught ‘speeding up’ videos of her appointments with patients because they exceeded the 12-minute time limit.
Dr Mahjabeen Asim, 45, used the app to manipulate footage to make consultations appear faster than they actually were, after at least one went over 45 minutes.
Dr Asim was asked to record appointments as part of her GP training at Victoria Road Surgery in Worthing, West Sussex.
However, suspicions arose when the examiner, while reviewing the films, noticed an analog clock on the wall that read 12:34, but bizarrely ended at 11:50.
When questioned, Dr Asim, who had previously failed GP exams twice, claimed she feared being assessed and was under such stress that she considered quitting.
It was subsequently reported to the General Medical Council.
At the Medical Practitioners Service Tribunal in Manchester, Dr Asim, from Streatham, south London, was found guilty of serious professional misconduct and banned from treating patients for two months.
Under NHS management, the average GP visit currently takes less than ten minutes.
However, the Royal Academy of GPs has called for them to be extended to 15 minutes to give patients more time to discuss their health concerns.
The hearing was told by Dr. Asim, who studied medicine in Pakistan, moved to the UK in 2010 and worked in A&E at West Middlesex University Hospital in Isleworth.
She began her GP training at Worthing Hospital in 2018 before being seconded to Victoria Road Surgery.
As part of the programme, she had to submit 13 different recorded consultations with real patients, covering a variety of areas including acute and chronic conditions, reproductive health, childcare and mental health.
Consultations should be recorded continuously and should not be edited and the camera should not be turned off.
The criteria also state that appointments are limited to 12 minutes and if the consultation went beyond the time period, Dr Asim would not receive marks for anything that occurred after that.
Dr Asim submitted her consultation in March 2023, but problems began when the examiner approached the professor overseeing the program to express his concerns.
After anomalies in the videos were found, all 13 of Dr Asim’s consultations were reviewed and four were suspected to have been sped up.
In a subsequent meeting with senior colleagues, Dr Asim was “shocked, surprised and unable to provide an explanation for the discrepancies”.
Later that afternoon, she spoke to her practice coach and admitted that she sped up the recording.
In her statement, Dr Asim said she used her mobile phone to record videos and then used apps to compress the file size, and that’s when she discovered a way to speed them up.
Dr. Asim, who qualified as a GP in April 2024, apologized for her actions, saying there was “no excuse or justification for her behaviour”.
She admitted she had been dishonest, adding: “It was difficult at home, but although I felt under extreme pressure, I didn’t take time off work or discuss the pressures I was facing with anyone.
“I had failed the exam on two previous occasions and was worried that my next attempt would be my last attempt and I would not get another extension to complete my training.
“I recorded all my consultations for two months, which felt like a running exam.
“I was concerned that the consultations were not complex enough to meet the criteria and there were technological issues in submitting the consultations, so I decided to use my mobile phone to record them.”
Asked about the process of recording and expediting consultation videos, Dr Asim said she did not think there was enough information within the 12-minute appointment limit to cover the mandatory criteria to pass the exam.
She added: “While compressing the videos I realized they could be made faster and then I panicked and picked random videos to make them faster.
“I transferred the videos from my cell phone to my computer and sped up one video to verify that it worked. When I realized the acceleration worked, I accelerated other videos. I admit I was wrong.’
Since the incident, Dr Asim has attended a number of courses including Maintaining Professional Ethics and has created a “development plan to identify the root causes of her actions and implement measures to prevent recurrence”.
Miss Jade Bucklow, of the GMC, said: “They are one component of the requirement to become a GP and if Dr Asim had not been caught it would have resulted in her being given a role for which she was not qualified.
“Her steps in speeding up her recordings gave her an unfair advantage over other candidates as she would have had more assessed content and more opportunities to meet the criteria to pass the exam.
“Dr Asim’s conduct was sophisticated, premeditated and continued over a period of time. It couldn’t be described as a moment of panic as she logged on to the computer to speed up the recording.
“The stress experienced by Dr. Asim was not exceptional. Many of her peers also experienced periods of stress but did not resort to cheating.”
Dr Asim’s adviser David Morris said: “While she resorted to improper methods to help her pass the exam, Dr Asim’s actions were carried out in a panic with little thought or planning.
“There was no real risk to patient safety and if Dr Asim had been successful it would have led to a competent but slow GP being admitted to the register.
“She found it difficult to record the consultations and the combination of pressure resulted in Dr Asim behaving in an unusual manner. She almost immediately accepted her dishonesty, showed remorse and offered an apology.”
MPTS President Miss Megan Larrinaga said: “Dr Asim’s actions sought to undermine the system of examination and admission to the GP Register.
“Her behavior was planned and protracted over several days to help her pass her professional exams.
“But the tribunal noted that Dr Asim was going through a difficult time in her home life.
“She also accepted that she was worried about passing the exam after failing it twice before and that she had not confided in anyone in detail about her difficult circumstances.
‘Dr Asim is now said to be more open to her surroundings, has friends she can confide in and actively monitors her stress levels.
“It was clear to the tribunal that Dr Asim is a well-respected doctor and that those giving evidence find her behavior unbecoming.”