A FORMER Royal Bolton Hospital doctor who was struck off the medical register after making "inappropriate" phone calls to patients is applying to be reinstated.

Dr Muhammad Imran worked as a registrar in the obstetrics and gynaecology department at the Royal Bolton Hospital from August 2010 until he was sacked in April 2012.

He failed to appear at a fitness to practise hearing in 2013, after which he was suspended for six months and then finally struck off in March 2014.

Dr Imran is believed to have returned to Pakistan, where he continued to work and sent an email to the panel following the hearing stating: “…Leaving UK after this GMC so called hearing and suspension opera proved to be a blessing in disguise for me…This suspension means nothing to me…”

In deciding to strike off the doctor, the panel concluded: "Dr Imran has failed to provide any evidence to demonstrate that he understands the gravity of his misconduct and has remedied it accordingly.

"Similarly, other than that he continues to work as a doctor in Pakistan, the panel has received no evidence to demonstrate that he has maintained his clinical skills and knowledge during his period of suspension. Accordingly, the panel is of the view that there remains a high likelihood of repetition in the future and that he continues to present a high risk to patients."

But Dr Imran has now applied to be reinstated on the register and a medical practitioners' tribunal hearing is due to take place in Manchester today to consider the matter.

During the original fitness to practise hearing the panel had heard evidence from Dr Imran’s colleagues about his behaviour whilst at the hospital, which involved being persistently late for ward rounds and clinics and regularly leaving early, being unsupportive of other members of staff and ignoring instructions from consultants.

Consultant Abimbola Williams told the tribunal that Dr Imran was late for her clinics 80 per cent of the time and on one occasion left well before a clinic had finished whilst patients were still waiting to be seen.

She told the panel that the doctor refused a staff member’s telephone request that he return and when she phoned him herself he refused again, stating that he had to go home to get food as he was on call that evening.

Dr Jalila Ibrahim, was a junior colleague of Dr Imran’s when they were working together in the delivery suite on February 12, 2011.

He told the panel how he kept disappearing during the day, ignoring pager requests and patients who could have been discharged were kept waiting unnecessarily.

In the end she said she had to resort to deception to get Dr Imran to help her.

“I had to trick Dr Imran into coming upstairs by saying a patient was really unwell and asking for help,” she said.

Evidence was heard that Dr Imran would spend hours at a time using the internet for personal use, visiting Autotrader, Pakistani news and flight information websites.

Women’s health manager, sister and team leader, Tina Gundlach told the tribunal: “Dr Imran often seemed distracted by the internet and the computer. It got to the stage where I would try and put him in a room without a computer.”

Evidence was heard that Dr Imran inappropriately phoned two female patients after he had seen them at the hospital.

Patient A told how she received up to eight text messages over a two week period in February or March, 2011, from the doctor and three phone calls. During one call he asked he what she “was up to at the weekend”.

When confronted by hospital bosses after the woman complained, Dr Imran denied contacting any patient before later claiming he had called a patient whose family was known to him. His responses to questions about the matter were said to be “vague and evasive.”

Dr Imran was warned not to contact patients using his mobile phone, but the panel was told that he rang another female patient later that year.