Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service determination — review hearing
Suspended from practice — 1 year
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 Chikaodinaka Okolo, doctor (General Medical Council 7405092).
Decision date: 13 March 2026 · Hearing started 12 March 2026 and ended 13 March 2026
In plain English
The MPTS tribunal found that Dr Chikaodinaka Okolo's fitness to practise remains impaired by reason of misconduct and a police caution. This was the latest in a series of review hearings dating back to 2019, when he was first suspended after admitting dishonestly self-prescribing controlled drugs and issuing false prescriptions while working as a locum A&E doctor. The tribunal suspended his registration for a further 12 months and directed a review hearing.
Charges
Review of a 12-month suspension imposed by the 2025 Tribunal. The original 2019 Tribunal had found proved that between April and December 2016, while working as a Locum Doctor in Emergency Medicine at Scarborough General Hospital, Dr Okolo self-prescribed controlled drugs, issued prescriptions in the names of former A&E patients, in the names of patients who had never attended A&E, and in the names of fictitious doctors, and his actions were dishonest. He also received a police caution on 6 April 2018 at Lewisham Police Station for possession of a Class A drug. Substantial parts of the determination were heard in private and redacted from the public record.
Findings
The Tribunal found Dr Okolo's fitness to practise remains impaired by reason of misconduct and a caution for a criminal offence. It placed the seriousness of the misconduct at the high end of the spectrum, noting it was pre-meditated, planned, repeated and dishonest. The Tribunal found that the misconduct and caution remain interlinked with underlying matters that have not been fully addressed, and that public confidence in the profession would be undermined if a finding of impairment were not made. Other related findings were heard in private and redacted.
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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