Fraud doctor patient phone line

The GMC regulates doctors

Women concerned about the treatment they received from a now jailed doctor can call a helpline for advice.

The NHS helpline - 020 8410 8796 - is open from 8am to 6pm five days a week to those with questions about 61-year-old Dr Henry Akpata's care.

He was sentenced to a year in prison after answering ten charges of fraud and concerns about his medical qualifications.

He worked in obstetrics and gynaecology for 35 hospitals in the UK as a locum.

Ealing Hospital NHS Trust, where Nigerian-born Dr Akpata last worked, is leading the investigation into his work.

Dr Akpata was medically qualified, but he was not authorised to work without supervision in the UK.

THE HOSPITALS WHERE DR AKPATA WORKED Basildon & Thurrock Billinge Birmingham Women's Central Middlesex Dartford & Gravesham Ealing Eastbourne East Lancashire Epsom Heatherwood & Wexham Hemel Hempstead Hope Hillingdon Kingston Leeds General Leicester General Lewisham Macclesfield Maidstone & Tunbridge Wells Mid Cheshire Mid Essex Newham Northwick Park Queen Elizabeth Margate Royal Berkshire Royal Bolton Salford Royal Southend Stoke Mandeville St Thomas' Surrey & Sussex Walsall Watford Whips Cross Wrightington

The trust has made 13 recommendations that have now been circulated to the Department of Health and all of the hospitals that employed Dr Akpata between February 1996 and October 2003, when he was arrested.

The recommendations include tightening up checks on freelance doctors.

To date, none of the hospitals involved have found any complaints from patients treated by Dr Akpata.

Dr William Lynn, medical director of Ealing Hospital NHS Trust, said: "We were shocked when we discovered that this doctor claimed qualifications which he did not have, and that his qualifications had not been sufficiently checked by the locum agency.

"He only worked at Ealing for three weeks, and we immediately parted company with the agency as soon as this became clear.

"We also commissioned a thorough inquiry and their recommendations are already helping us to sharpen procedures when employing locum doctors. "We believe they will also help other hospitals faced with this problem.