Trainee doctor from Grantham suspended after claiming nearly £10,000 in sick pay while working for United Lincolnshire Hospital Trust
A trainee doctor who claimed nearly £10,000 in sick pay while working for another NHS trust has been suspended for her “serious misconduct”.
Dr Tracy Landu-Landu, who lives in Grantham, claimed £9,865.52 from the former St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust in statutory sick pay, while working 38 locum shifts under the United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust (ULHT).
The locum shifts that Dr Landu-Landu worked were between August 25, 2020 and December 21, 2020 at Boston Pilgrim Hospital and Lincoln County Hospital, which are both part of the ULHT.
After a Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service held in Manchester, Dr Landu-Landu was suspended for nine months due to serious professional misconduct.
The concerns were first raised with the General Medical Council (GMC) after an investigation by the St Helen’s and Knowsley trust, which concluded in April 2022.
Katie Jones, counsel for GMC, told the tribunal that Dr Landu-Landu’s actions had “brought the profession into disrepute” as a result of her “dishonesty”.
In December 2020, Dr Landu-Landu received a call from the trust’s HR partner asking if she was working off sick.
Dr Landu-Landu told the tribunal that she explained that she was “not in a position to talk due to the stress caused by recent life events”.
She explained at the time that she was not on sick leave and was asked by her lead employer to get a sick note.
Ms Jones told the tribunal that at the time of this call, she had the “chance” to “admit what she had done”.
Dr Landu-Landu told the tribunal that as the “incident occurred a while ago” she had time to “reflect on her actions” and knew “she had done wrong”.
It was determined that Dr Landu-Landu’s actions were serious as her “conduct fell well short of what was expected as a medical professional”.
As a result, a nine month suspension was determined as an “appropriate sanction to mark the seriousness” of her actions.
The tribunal said this would “meet the need to maintain public confidence in the professional and have a deterrent effect, to send out a signal to Dr Landu-Landu, other members of the profession and the public, that her behaviour was unbefitting of a registered doctor”.
Dr Landu-Landu said the suspension would also give her time to pay back the money, of which she claimed she would be able to repay within 18 months.
The tribunal noted that: “Dr Landu-Landu has expressed regret and remorse for how she behaved.”
It was also determined a hearing would be held shortly before the nine month suspension was up to see how Dr Landu-Landu had “developed insight, remediated and reflected on her misconduct”.
