Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service determination — review hearing
Suspended from practice — 7 months
The regulator’s term: suspension
What does “suspended from practice” mean?
A suspension is a fixed-term pause on the right to practise. The practitioner cannot work in the regulated profession during the suspension. At the end of the period the suspension may be extended, replaced with another sanction, or lifted on review.
Concerning Richard Bowley, doctor (General Medical Council 4008923).
Decision date: 3 November 2025 · Hearing started 3 November 2025
This sanction period has elapsed.
In plain English
The MPTS tribunal considered a misconduct case for Richard Bowley. It recorded the decision on impairment as impaired and imposed a 7-month suspension. The source PDF contains the tribunal's published reasons, with any private material redacted where required.
Charges
The MPTS PDF background states: 3. Dr Bowley qualified in 1993 from the University of Bristol. At the time of the events, Dr Bowley was practising as a locum General Practitioner (GP) at the Brent Area Medical Centre as well as doing locum shifts at the Cheddar Medical Centre. 4. The facts found proved at Dr Bowley’s hearing from 17-20 March 2025 (the March 2025 Tribunal) related to his accessing confidential medical records on 3 July 2023 of a patient (Ms A), XXX, without consent or legitimate reason. 5. The original concerns arose in September 2023 when Ms A asked for an investigation into the security of her electronic medical records. Ms A gave evidence to the March 2025 Tribunal that XXX she suspected that he had accessed her confidential medical records. His unauthorised access was identified and the breach of data protection was reported to the Performance Advisory Group and the Information Commissioner’s Office. Dr Bowley referred himself to the GMC in November 2023. 6. The March 2025 Tribunal found that Dr Bowley was not, and had never been, Ms A’s doctor and had no consent or legitimate reason to access her medical records. Dr Bowley provided no explanation for this breach of confidentiality and did not give evidence to the Tribunal. 7. The March 2025 Tribunal concluded that Dr Bowley’s actions amounted to an intentional abuse of trust and were more likely than not to have been malicious. Record of Determinations – Medical Practitioners Tribunal MPT: Dr BOWLEY 3 The March 2025 Tribunal accepted Ms A’s evidence that she was so distressed by the breach that this had caused ‘psychological harm’. 8. The March 2025 Tribunal found that Dr Bowley had breached the principle of confidentiality, a fundamental tenet of the medical profession. His actions had undermined public confidence in doctors. 9...
Findings
The Medical Practitioners Tribunal considered a misconduct case for Richard Bowley. The detail page records impairment as impaired and the tribunal imposed a 7-month suspension.
Source
All facts on this page are drawn from the publicly published Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service determination linked below. MedicWatch does not editorialise the regulator’s findings.
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