GP suspended over ‘speeding up’ videos of patient appointments

A newly qualified family GP has been suspended after she was caught “speeding up” videos of her appointments with patients because they went on too long.

Dr Mahjabeen Asim, 45, used an app to manipulate the films in an attempt to make the consultations look far quicker than they were after at least one ran 45 minutes over the regulation time limit of just 12 minutes.

Dr Asim, who had to record the appointments as part of her GP training, was caught after an examiner checking one of the films noticed an analogue clock on a wall showing 12.34pm when the video timings falsely appeared to show the appointment finishing at 11.50am.

When questioned, Dr Asim who had previously twice failed her GP exam, claimed she feared being marked down and said she was under so much stress she considered quitting.

She was subsequently reported to the General Medical Council (GMC) following which she qualified as a GP.

At the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service in Manchester, Dr Asim, of Streatham, south London, was found guilty of serious professional misconduct and banned from treating patients for two months. A panel had considered striking her off the medical register.

Recorded consultations

As part of her training she had been required to submit 13 different recorded consultations with patients covering various areas including acute and chronic conditions, reproductive health, child welfare and mental health.

The criteria stated that the consultations should be recorded continuously and not edited, and the camera should not be turned off.

It also said appointments were limited to 12 minutes, and if a consultation exceeded that period Dr Asim would not achieve marks for anything occurring after that time.

Dr Asim submitted her consultations in March 2023, but trouble began when the examiner approached a professor overseeing the programme to raise concerns about the recording and timing of one of the videos after spotting that the time on a clock on the wall did not match the video time.

As a result, all 13 of Dr Asim’s consultations were reviewed and it was suspected four had been sped up. At a subsequent meeting with senior colleagues she was described as being “shocked, surprised and unable to offer an explanation for discrepancies”.

‘Sense of panic’

Later that same afternoon she spoke to her GP trainer, admitting to speeding up the recording. In a statement, Dr Asim said she used her mobile phone to record the videos and then used apps to compress the file size at which point she discovered an option to speed them up.

David Morris, who was defending Dr Asim, said she acted “in a sense of panic with little thought or planning”, and that there was no real threat to patient safety.

Jade Bucklow, representing the GMC, said: “Dr Asim’s conduct was sophisticated and premeditated. It could not be described as a moment of panic as she logged on to a computer to speed up the footage.”