A junior doctor who was struck off after being found asleep during her shift at Bury's Fairfield General Hospital has been handed back her licence.

Dr Raisah Sawati was struck off last year by the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) after being found lying down while on shift at the hospital in March 2017.

Following an appeal by Dr Sawati, a new tribunal has instead suspended her for six months. 

Dr Sawati, who is from Glasgow, had been missing from the accident and emergency department for around two hours before she was found lying down with her eyes closed in the women’s changing rooms.

In a separate incident at the same hospital, the tribunal determined Dr Sawati had been dishonest after she falsely claimed to have swapped shifts with another doctor.

The MPTS also found that while at a GP practice, Dr Sawati failed to discuss a nursing home patient’s respiratory symptoms with another doctor.

The patient later died and Dr Sawati changed her notes to make it seem that she had discussed the patient’s symptoms with her colleague.

Prior to the incident at the hospital, Dr Sawati admitted lying down with the lights off during a shift at Manchester Royal Infirmary (MRI) in 2015.

The 2021 tribunal determined to erase Dr Sawati’s name from the medical register after determining that the doctor’s fitness to practice was ‘impaired'.

In January this year, Dr Sawati’s appealed the decision at the High Court as she believed the tribunal had 'got it wrong'.

High Court Judge Rowena Collins Rice allowed the appeal in part as she “was not satisfied that the (2021 tribunal) handled Dr Sawati’s case fairly".

At the appeal, Dr Sawati’s representative, Martin Forde QC "submitted that Dr Sawati had learned her lesson and accepted that she should have acted differently and there is a lack of risk of repetition of this conduct".

The tribunal ruled on a six-month suspension after it considered the interests of Dr Sawati balanced with the wider interest of the public.

It noted that Dr Sawati had taken steps to improve her conduct including taking courses and undergoing an observership under another doctor.

The tribunal record said: “New evidence, however, demonstrated that Dr Sawati had undertaken several CPD courses since the 2021 tribunal.

“This included courses on personal and team resilience, an essential guide to medical records, communication skills, dealing with conflict, emotional intelligence and Welcome to UK practice- case studies (which deals with team working and raising concerns).”

“The Tribunal further determined that patients will not be placed at risk by resumption of practice.”