A doctor who was caught with dozens of Scottish patients’ private medical files after police raided his home for child abuse images has been struck off for gross misconduct.
Ghai Xiong Chong, 30, had his home raided by police in England acting on a tip-off that illegal images were being downloaded. When officers searched his laptop they found more than 3,000 depraved images but also uncovered a “large number” of medical files belonging to patients in Scotland.
It later emerged he had taken the pictures while working for NHS Lothian.
Humberside police informed the General Medical Council about the find, prompting an investigation.
Chong, originally from Malaysia, was jailed for six months for the images, many of which showed abuse of the most depraved level. He was convicted at Hull crown court last November. The court heard that he told police: “It’s all my fault. I’m addicted to porn and have been for years.”
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He was also made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order for seven years and placed on the sex offenders register for the same period.
Chong, who graduated from the University of Edinburgh in 2017, appeared before a hearing of the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS).
The tribunal found Chong had “inappropriately stored photographs of confidential identifiable patient medical records from NHS Lothian” in addition to his criminal conviction in England.
Chong claimed he had taken photos of patient files because he was under pressure at work and wanted to gather information for his training. But the panel ruled that storing private medical information was “serious misconduct”.
In a written ruling, the MPTS panel said: “Downloading and viewing child sex abuse materials seriously undermines patients’ and the public’s trust and confidence in the medical profession and inevitably brings the profession as a whole into disrepute. In these circumstances, the tribunal concluded that the only proportionate and necessary sanction is one of erasure.”
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NHS Lothian was approached for comment.
