Dr Jacek Lewit was employed at Darlington Memorial Hospital when he used time he was supposed to be doing admin and working from home to take extra shifts without approval, more than 100 times
Darlington Memorial Hospital(Image: Teesside Live)
A County Durham hospital consultant has been struck off and sacked after it was discovered that he had been moonlighting – carrying out more than 100 shifts as a locum doctor while he was supposed to be working from home in his main job. Dr Jacek Lewit was employed by the County Durham and Darlington NHS Trust (CDDFT) and working at Darlington Memorial Hospital at the time of the offences.
Following a Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service hearing in June, Dr Lewit has been struck off the medical register. A judgement handed down by the tribunal chair Morag Rea found: “The Tribunal noted that Dr Lewit had worked 116 locum shifts at times he should have been working for CDDFT. This persisted over more than two years, starting in August 2019, and continuing until January 2022.”
As a result, five charges relating to the shifts he worked, those he worked having previously been warned about the issue, and his dishonesty were found proven. The senior doctor, an acute medicine consultant, qualified in Poland but had been on the UK medical register since 2007.
For the General Medical Council, counsel Ms Khan argued that Dr Lewit’s “conduct falls seriously short of the conduct expected of doctors and can properly be considered both deplorable and as constituting grievous failures”.
In a letter to the tribunal, Dr Lewit described his actions as “unwise decisions”, “past mistakes” and “non-professional”. In the findings, Ms Rea added: ” He describes his state of mind at the time as ‘lost due to high levels of stress in his personal life’ which impaired his ability to consider the consequences of his actions.
“He also explained that he was under financial pressure to assist his family following the death of his father.”
However, the tribunal found that the facts of the case – that he had worked an astonishing 111 locum shifts at the South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Trust while he should have been doing administrative work in his role at Darlington Memorial, followed by five further shifts at the North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Trust in the same circumstances – were dishonest.
Explaining the decision to strike him from the medical register, the tribunal led by Ms Rea added: “[His actions] involved deliberate and sustained dishonesty over a more than two-year period. Further, it involved a significant financial gain.
“Dr Lewit had an opportunity to cease his dishonest conduct, having been told to stop his actions by two senior colleagues in January 2021, and assured those colleagues that he would do so. Having been trusted to act accordingly, Dr Lewit then abused his colleagues’ trust repeatedly for a further three months, and then again during December 2021. The Tribunal considered this to be a significant aggravating factor.”
The Tribunal found there had been no previous concerns about Dr Lewit’s practice, and no evidence it had been repeated, and that there were two positive references about him and reports of excellence where he had gone “above and beyond”.
However, in the findings, Ms Rea continued: “In the view of the Tribunal, bearing in mind the nature of the dishonest misconduct in this case together with the lack of insight demonstrated, Dr Lewit’s misconduct was fundamentally incompatible with continued registration. Therefore, the only appropriate sanction in this case is to direct that Dr Lewit’s name is erased from the medical register.”
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