Trust ‘missed opportunities’ to prevent sex offender working as locum

A trust has admitted it ‘missed opportunities’ to identify that a locum doctor – who was arrested on hospital premises for two sexual offences — had already been cautioned for indecent exposure.

Salman Siddiqi admitted two offences – attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child and attempting to arrange or facilitate a meeting with a child for sexual offences – last month.

East Kent Hospitals University Foundation Trust, where he was working as a locum paediatric registrar at the time of the January offences, has now said there had been “missed opportunities” to identify his previous caution.

Chief medical officer Rebecca Martin told HSJ the trust had taken steps to ensure that these missed opportunities could not happen again. She said in a statement: “This includes standardising DBS checks for temporary workers booked through an agency and escalating all DBS and General Medical Council checks that feature conditions, cautions or warnings.”

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Source: HSJ, 23 February 2023