A FORMER Basildon and Thurrock Hospital doctor who was barred from working in the UK six ago following allegations of violent behaviour has been refused the right to return to work in this country.

Dr Essam Aly was struck off the UK's medical register in 2016 and has since worked in Egypt, United Arab Emirates and the Yemen.

At the time of the judgement against him, Dr Aly was employed as a locum consultant anesthesiologist at Basildon but was suspended and then barred when a Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service hearing found him guilty of "proven allegations of violent and controlling behaviour."

That had happened during earlier employment at Queen's Hospital in Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire. Just a year earlier he had made national newspaper headlines when he was ordered to pay every penny of his £550,000 assets to his ex-wife in a landmark divorce case.

Earlier this year Dr Aly applied for reinstatement before a panel convened by the General Medical Council court, which concluded its findings this month when the application was rejected.

Despite agreeing that he has maintained his medical knowledge and skills since being struck off and determining that there would be low risk to patient safety and members of the public if Dr Aly were permitted to return to the register, the panel's three judges concluded that public confidence in the medical profession would be seriously undermined by the restoration of Dr Aly into unrestricted practice

Dr Aly had told the panel that since his ban in the UK he had worked in medicine in other countries and was of "very good standing" with not a single complaint from patients or colleagues.

However, the panel concluded that Dr Aly was dishonest in parts of his submission to them. Details of the hearing and a full decision can be found via this link.