A doctor has been struck off after he accepted more than 230 shifts at King George Hospital that he not trained to complete.

Dr Syed Afaq Ahmed Hashmi appeared before the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service for a ten-day hearing in May.

He was facing the panel because although he was only trained to be the most junior doctor, he had accepted locum shifts for more senior work between April 2017 and 2018.

Despite not attending the hearing, Dr Ahmed Hashmi sent three emails to the tribunal explaining his conduct. He said he struggled to find vacancies at the level he was qualified for and needed money to support his family.

During the shifts Dr Ahmed Hashmi assisted in surgical theatres and arranged scans in general surgery and urology, completing locum shifts through an agency called DRC Group - which raised concerns with the General Medical Council in January 2018.

The tribunal Service ruled that he would be permanently removed from the medical register.

“Dr Ahmed Hashmi… demonstrated a lack of integrity, put patients at risk of harm and could have brought the medical profession into disrepute," the tribunal wrote.

“He seems to be under the misapprehension that because a trust contacts him directly to employ him, that in some manner absolves him of his responsibility as a professional to work within the confines of his registration.

“He has shown no remorse or insight upon which the tribunal could properly conclude that this conduct will not be repeated.”

In addition to working shifts at King George Hospital, he also worked shifts he was underqualified for at hospitals in Sussex and Essex.

In February, the trust which runs King George Hospital - Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust (BHRUT) - noted that over-reliance on locum shifts due to short-staffing was contributing to its strained finances.

BHRUT spends £80 million a year on temporary staff, of which £20 million is at “premium” rates.

It has been unable to reduce this figure “despite good recruitment” because it is losing staff faster than it can hire.

BHRUT spent £78.7 million this financial year and expects a budget gap of £10 million by December.