A British doctor who repeatedly asked a Muslim patient to remove her veil during a consultation and later continued working despite being suspended has been struck off the medical register.Dr Keith Wolverson was previously suspended for nine months after pleading guilty to multiple misconduct charges relating to incidents between January and May 2018 while he worked as a locum at urgent care centers in Derby and Stoke. One of the most serious incidents occurred on 13 May 2018 at Royal Stoke University Hospital, where he asked a woman, identified as Mrs Q, to remove her niqab three times during an appointment.The patient initially refused citing religious reasons, but later removed it after repeated requests. Dr. Wolverson later claimed that he made the request because she “spoke poor English” and he was “struggling to understand her”, adding that he was “trying to watch her mouth movements to aid communication”. However, a tribunal found that his English was fluent and described his explanation as dishonest.The patient later said she felt “victimized and racially discriminated against.” It also found that Dr. Wolverson refused to interact with her husband during consultations, later saying that she found his manner “aggressive and intimidating”. His legal representative acknowledged that the doctor’s behavior was “insensitive”.Further concerns were raised about his conduct in other cases, where he recorded comments about the English-speaking ability of 15 patients and their relatives, describing it as “unacceptable” and “not good enough”.Although he was suspended in 2022, it later emerged that Dr. Wolverson had continued to perform locum work during that period, despite express instructions not to practice. This breach, as well as his failure to attend subsequent tribunal hearings, led to a fresh investigation.At a review hearing in 2023, Dr Wolverson said he had reflected on his actions and “deeply regretted the comments he made in patients’ medical notes”. He also argued that it would be wrong to continue his suspension given “such serious shortcomings within the NHS at present”.At that time the tribunal concluded that his fitness to practice was impaired, but decided not to extend the suspension further, instead imposing conditions on his registration for the next 12 months, including supervision. He later returned to work under those circumstances.However, a subsequent hearing found that he had “disengaged” from the regulatory process and had shown a “persistent and blatant disregard” for its requirements. The tribunal also raised concerns about his lack of ongoing practice and the risk it posed to patient safety.Emma Gilberthorpe, chairing the hearing for the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service, said: “Dr Wolverson had failed to use the previous period of suspension constructively, had remained on the sidelines throughout, and had shown a persistent and blatant disregard for the regulatory process.”He said any lesser sanction would not adequately protect the public or reflect the seriousness of the misconduct. “The tribunal concluded that any lesser sanction would fail to address the existing and ongoing risk to public safety,” he said.Dr. Wolverson’s name has now been removed from the medical register, bringing the case to a close.