A DOCTOR who tried to claim payments for working at two hospitals at the same time has been struck off the medical register.

Dr Mohamed El Fatih Obiad El Muiad worked as a locum consultant and registrar at Royal Blackburn Hospital, Salford Royal Hospital, Dewsbury District Hospital and Pontefract General Hospital between 2008 and 2009.

But a General Medical Council hearing found that El Muiad tried to claim payments for working at more than one hospital at the same time on 11 different occasions – submitting 22 fraudulent time sheets.

El Muiad, who failed to attend the hearing in Manchester last week, was seen working at Royal Blackburn Hospital on July 24, 2009, while he was supposed to be covering a ward at Salford Royal Hospital.

His dishonesty came to light after a boss at Salford Royal Hospital became suspicious.

When confronted El Muiad claimed he had been doing administrative work in Salford.

But he later admitted that he had been working in Blackburn and suggested that he submitted a form by mistake.

El Muiad was previously suspended for six months in 2005 because of ‘strikingly similar’ dishonest conduct, when he accepted a police caution for obtaining property by deception, made false claims for travel expenses and undertook locum work when he was supposed to be on study leave.

The panel said ‘his integrity can no longer be relied upon,’ and that his behaviour had put patients at risk of harm.

It concluded: “His behaviour demonstrates a reckless disregard for the basic values on which good practice is founded. Dr El Muiad has established a course of conduct that displays harmful and deep-seated attitudinal problems.”

He had “an arrogant contempt for the system of registration which is designed to safeguard the interests of patients and to maintain high standards within the profession.”