The Daily Telegraph published an article on Sunday which accused Dr Imran Waheed, a former senior member of Hizb ut-Tahrir, of being an “extremist” who is unfit to work for the NHS.
The article which was entitled “‘Extremist’ working as psychiatrist for NHS” (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/nhs/10748685/Extremist-working-as-psychiatrist-for-NHS.html) claimed the former chief media adviser of HT had “extremist” hard-line views pertaining to Shariah law and the caliphate.
However, it was revealed that the information the Daily Telegraph’s article was based on was from an outdated media pack.
In a statement, HT said: “The media pack on the site is out of date and he (Imran Waheed) no longer holds the position he did some years ago. Indeed, he holds no official position in the organisation.”
Dr Peter Lewis, executive medical director at Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Trust (BSMHT), said: “Dr Imran Waheed is a highly regarded clinician in the organisation and there have been no concerns raised with us relating to any impact of his external activities on his clinical work or on the quality of care provided to his patients.”
Letter of complaint
Here are some excerpts from the letter sent to the Daily Telegraph by Mr Waheed’s lawyer.
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“Our client had asked your journalist to put allegations to him, as your paper has a duty to do, but rather than that, your journalist has made a series of wild and defamatory allegations about our client and put no allegations to him. Picking through these allegations it appears that your paper will allege that our client’s religious views mean that he cannot operate as a consultant psychiatrist.
“Were your paper to publish that allegation, it would be completely untrue and defamatory and would cause serious harm to our client and his career, not least his ability to attract patients. Indeed there is no basis for this allegation. Our client has received no patient complaints at all in relation to his care, he has received two NHS clinical excellence awards in the last two successive years for his achievements in developing and delivering high-quality patient care and his commitment to the continuous improvement of the NHS.
“He has been involved with committees to improve patient care at the Trust and he is regularly involved in audit, evaluation of outcomes and has recent experience of leading serious incident reviews and quality reviews of clinical services. He has been subject to 360-degree appraisal by patients and colleagues and annual appraisal and again our client’s reviews are nothing short of exemplary. It cannot therefore be said that anything is impacting on our client’s ability to do his job or act professionally as there is no evidence at all to suggest that he is underperforming or that there are any concerns about his care.
“He does not hold extremist views, as you suggest, but holds the views that any practicing Muslim would hold. Of course Muslims do not believe in same-sex marriage, but Catholics do not believe in abortion and we do not see your paper targeting this religious group and seeking to ban them from practicing as psychiatrists. Were your paper to suggest that a Muslim should not practice as a psychiatrist because of his views on same-sex marriage then not only would this be defamatory, and a breach of his Article 8 and 9 rights, but it would also be racist. We refer you to the PCC Code and the Guidance from the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
“Our client is, as are many people, critical of this government’s foreign policy, but again that cannot found any allegation that there is something wrong with our client’s employment by the NHS. Our client’s views on this government’s foreign policy are irrelevant to his ability to work for the NHS and again he has the right to hold religious views and to a private life enshrined under the ECHR.”
