Edinburgh doctor suspended for trying to pass off plagiarised paper as his own at job interview

An Edinburgh doctor has been suspended for six months after trying to pass off a plagiarised medical paper as his own at a job interview.

Dr Muhammad Basharat’s dishonestly was uncovered when interviewers at NHS Lothian became suspicious of his claims and tracked down the original report.

Dr Basharat originally submitted his plagiarised paper to the Indo American Journal of Pharmaceutical Science in 2018, claiming it was his own work.

When applying for a job at as Clinical Fellow in NHS Lothian’s Cardiothoracic Intensive Care Unit four years later in 2023, he cited the paper in his application.

At interview, Dr Basharat handed over a copy of the work and answered questions on it.

Following the interview, a suspicious doctor at the hospital was able to locate a copy of the original paper and noted “significant” similarities and reported him to the General Medical Council.

The Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) found Dr Basharat’s fitness to practise impaired due to misconduct.

A hearing on August 12 found that he had admitted to submitting a paper entitled ‘Behaviour of medical students towards the patients of leukaemia and AIDS’ as his own work.

He also admitted to falsely naming himself as the lead author of the report and cited it in a job application.

A decision was made to suspend Dr Basharat for a period of six months with no immediate order imposed.

Their report stated: “The Tribunal considered that Dr Basharat allowed the dishonesty to continue for more than four years.

“It was satisfied that Dr Basharat knew, or ought to have known, that his conduct was wrong, and it considered that there were multiple occasions that Dr Basharat could have reconsidered his dishonest conduct but did not until others discovered his actions.”

The MPTS runs hearings that make independent decisions about whether doctors are fit to practise in the UK and is separate from the General Medical Council (GMC).