A DOCTOR was suspended for eight months after falsely claiming he witnessed another GP perform tests on a patient.

A General Medical Council (GMC) hearing in Manchester heard Dr Shakil Malik’s actions were “dishonest” and could have potentially put patients at risk.

The trainee GP was employed by Warrington Hospital and was working at Kenmore Medical Centre, in Cheshire, when he signed off papers about a colleague, named as Dr N, in February, 2009.

Decision documents read: “You were complicit in the dishonest creation of two assessment forms which indicated that you had witnessed and assessed Dr N’s ability to carry out two medical procedures when you had not.

“The panel considers your dishonesty is exacerbated by the fact that it had the potential to put patients at risk.”

He was also charged with failing to give patients the right drugs during home visits. On one occasion, he then altered medical notes to cover the mistake up.

However, the panel said that these mistakes in isolation did not amount to misconduct, because they were restricted to a two-day period during training.