Ali Salih, registration number 2212755, received a warning from the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) after he was found to have sent “unsolicited messages” to a “vulnerable” patient via WhatsApp.
In a hearing on September 18, a fitness-to-practise (FtP) committee heard that Salih “breached the confidentiality and privacy of a patient” by obtaining their contact details from pharmacy records and sending them messages on WhatsApp.
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According to the determination documents, the messages “suggested he was seeking to enter into a personal relationship at a time when he should have known that the patient was vulnerable”.
The events in question took place between July 30 and August 2, 2024, when Salih was working as a locum at a retail pharmacy in Muswell Hill, the GPhC said.
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It added that Salih’s conduct was “entirely inappropriate, amounted to a serious failure to meet standards for pharmacy professionals” and will likely “undermine confidence in the profession”.
Salih was warned by the regulator to “always maintain proper professional boundaries with patients, make their wellbeing his primary concern and avoid any contact which is not in their best interests”.
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The committee concluded that a warning was the “appropriate outcome” in Salih’s case, with “any future similar conduct” likely to lead to “more serious regulatory intervention”.
The warning will be published on the register and will be available for 12 months, it said.
Read the determination in full here.
