A "PORN ADDICTED" junior doctor convicted of child sex offences has been struck off.
A tribunal ruled that the behaviour of Dr Ghai Chong, who also hoarded photographs of confidential patient records on his personal laptop while working in Scotland, was "fundamentally incompatible" with being a doctor.
Chong, who qualified in medicine at Edinburgh University in 2017, was sentenced to six months in prison at Hull Magistrates' Court in November last year.
He was found guilty of making an indecent photograph, or 'pseudo-photograph', of a child and being in possession of indecent images of children.
The trial heard that police who raided the medic's home in November 2019, when he was employed in the Acute Medical Unit at Hull Royal Infirmary, had discovered hundreds of images featuring sexual abuse of children stored on his laptop and hard drive.
The cache included a video of an adult raping a child.
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The court was told that Chong confessed that he was "addicted to porn and have been for years".
Humberside Police also alerted the General Medical Council that, during its investigation, it had uncovered a "large number" of photographs of patient medical notes stored on Chong's own laptop.
The names and addresses indicated that the patient records all related to his work in Scotland.
Following his graduation from Edinburgh University, Chong worked as a junior doctor in NHS Lothian and NHS Fife from July 2017 until August 2019.
The Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service, which determines whether doctors' fitness to practise is impaired, determined that Chong "inappropriately stored photographs of confidential identifiable patient medical records from NHS Lothian" on his personal laptop in 2019 "without permission or authorisation and/or a legitimate reason".
Email evidence from DC Sarah Hardwick stated that there was a "large volume" of patients' medical notes which "all appear to be from his work in Scotland as we can see the names and addresses".
These had been taken using his mobile phone, she said.
It is unclear why he was storing the information.
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In a witness statement, Keith Brunton, clinical advisor for NHS Lothian, confirmed that the CHI number on some of the images belonged to a Lothian patient.
Chong, a Malaysian national who was described in court as "lonely" and coming from a "modest" background, referred himself to the GMC following his arrest in November 2019 and was immediately suspended from work.
The MPTS has now ruled that he should be erased from the medical register, banning him from working as a doctor in the UK.
He could also be deported.
Judge David Tremberg, who presided over the case at Hull Magistrates' Court, said Chong’s offending had happened “against a background of low self esteem and self isolation.”
Tracey Gillies, the executive medical director at NHS Lothian who also provided a witness statement to the MPTS, said she could not comment on individual members of staff past or present, but added: "We take the security of information and confidentiality of medical records very seriously.
“We have IT systems and protocols as well as training in place to try to ensure these standards are upheld and our policies are adhered to.”
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