A family doctor was dishonest when she failed to arrange appointments to deal with more than a dozen patients with chronic conditions at a Blackburn surgery, a watchdog has ruled.

Dr Sarah Fatima Alam, who worked at the former Umar practice in Bastwell, claimed to have invited people with chronic conditions such as diabetes and asthma for monitoring reviews on dates in March 2018.

But she inserted entries into the patients' records to say an invite had been sent out, a fitness to practice hearing before the Medical Practitioners' Tribunal Service (MPTS) was told.

An MPTS panel, sitting in Manchester on dates in May, June and August, determined the information recorded by Dr Alam was untrue in relation to 14 patients and her actions were dishonest in respect of 13 of them.

She admitted she had failed to record she had made entries retrospectively.

The panel, on admission, also found, she had excluded patients from a quality and outcomes framework for the practice.

Her actions here were also found to be dishonest in the case of 13 patients but not in respect of 18 others. Instead, she was understood to have been 'misleading' in these instances.

Another surgery doctor, Mohammed Raouf Alam, admitted to inserting entries into patients' medical records over chronic disease monitoring and not sending out invitations for reviews.

But the panel determined allegations the information he recorded was untrue were unproven in relation to four patients.

He did admit to having not seen or reviewed the patients and making retrospective entries into medical records. He also admitted to 'exception reporting' dozens of patients.

His actions were found by the panel to be 'misleading' but not 'dishonest'.

The MPTS panel will now determine, based on their misconduct findings, whether the doctors' fitness to practice is currently impaired.

Further hearings have been scheduled in Manchester next January and April to come to these decisions.

Around the time of the charges, Umar Medical Practice, which also had a branch surgery in Railway Road, Darwen, was placed in 'special measures' by the Care Quality Commission. Later the practice was taken over by separate doctors.