Pharmacist Sunil Kumar Lakhani, registration number 2038518, was last week (December 4) handed a further four months of suspension by the GPhC after it found that his insight remained “limited and superficial”.
A fitness-to-practise (FtP) review hearing found that Lakhani provided patients with fit-to-fly certificates certifying that their Covid tests had come back negative, despite knowing that the tests “conducted at the pharmacy were not or would not be tested”.
According to the determination document, Lakhani’s conduct was “dishonest” because he knew the fit-to-fly certificates he had issued to patients “were not legitimate”.
Read more: SI warned for trying to ‘absolve himself’ of online service oversight
Lakhani was handed a 12-month suspension with a review after previous hearings in September and November last year and this sanction was due to expire on December 5, it said.
The principal hearing previously found “no evidence” that Lakhani’s conduct was “motivated by financial gain” and the review hearing committee accepted its earlier finding that his conduct was “potentially remediable”.
But the GPhC noted that the insight shown by Lakhani “remains limited and superficial” and “there remains a degree of minimisation of the conduct found proven”, as well as “a reluctance to accept the finding of dishonesty”.
“Cash payments”
The committee heard that in February 2022, Lakhani failed to keep records of both Covid tests completed at the pharmacy and the courier services used for them, but issued fit-to-fly certificates to patients certifying that the “testing service had found their rapid antigen test negative for Covid”.
He also “accepted only cash payments” for Covid tests and “recorded the cash received” for the tests “as no sale”, the GPhC said.
Read more: Pharmacist warned for injecting ‘homeopathic’ vitamin B12
It added that Lakhani was found to have “placed a used” Covid test swab “back into its packaging”, used a “swab kit from Fit2Fly 24/7 Limited” at the pharmacy and told a GPhC inspector “that the pharmacy used ‘24/7’ services to process tests”.
And the regulator noted that he had “notified a GPhC inspector by way of email” that he “did not realise that you needed United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) accreditation for taking swabs” and “had now applied for this accreditation”.
Read more: Pharmacy tech ‘voluntarily’ struck off after prison patient romance
“Your conduct…was dishonest in that you knew you had not applied for the relevant accreditation with UKAS,” it said.
The committee also heard that between February 2021 and February 2022, Lakhani “did not ensure that testing services provided by the pharmacy were accredited with UKAS” or “make an application to UKAS”.
“Shame and embarrassment”
The regulator acknowledged that Lakhani “feels a degree of shame and embarrassment around obtaining testimonials” from the charity he has volunteered with.
It said that it “has sympathy with this” - but stressed that “part of the remediation process requires the overcoming of this embarrassment”.
Read more: Pharmacy tech struck off over £600k drug smuggling conviction
And it said that testimonials could have provided “objective insight into the changed person that [Lakhani] now says that he is”, but the committee “had no sight of any such information” at the hearing.
It also accepted that he has “demonstrated an expansive career, including acting as a magistrate” and has “started the process of remediation and has expressed remorse”.
“Lingering concerns”
But the GPhC also stressed that Lakhani provided “no evidence of any relevant training or continuing professional development (CPD), especially around ethics”.
It said that because Lakhani was absent from the hearing, it was “impossible for the committee to ask [him] any further questions” - and that it is for him “to persuade the committee that he is no longer impaired”, which “would require further independent evidence of remediation”.
The lack of this evidence “leaves the committee with lingering concerns of a risk of repetition”, it added.
Read more: Pharmacist warned not to work ‘unless able to do so safely’
The committee found that Lakhani’s current fitness to practise was still “impaired on public protection and interest grounds”.
It said that it retained “concerns that the conduct has not been properly remedied” and it has “not been convinced that there is no risk of repetition”.
Read more: ‘Remorseful’ pharmacist no longer suspended after ‘sexual assault’
But it also recognised that Lakhani has “clearly made a start on demonstrating remediation” - and said that it “was keen to ensure” his suspension was “sufficient to allow” him to complete this, “undertake any CPD and source testimonials”.
The GPhC concluded that a further four-month suspension “would be appropriate and proportionate”, with another hearing to review the sanction before it expires.
Read the determination in full here.
