LONDON: A radiographer from Kerala has been suspended from practising in Britain for six months after a panel found she was unable to do basic procedures like X-raying a hand or foot that a radiographer “straight out of training would be able to do”, and that she was putting the health of UK patients at risk.
Smitha Johny, an Indian national, had declared her first language as English on her application to be registered with the health and care professionals council in 2021.
She had also declared English as her first language on her application to work as a radiographer at a private hospital in Surrey, where she started working in Jan 2023. She had also claimed to have 23 years of experience.
However, the health and care professions tribunal service found she struggled to communicate with patients and colleagues in English, was unable to answer basic questions about radiography process, could not identify basic anatomy, did not follow required guidelines, was unable to set a up an X-ray machine, failed a mandatory life support course, and misrepresented her experience.
When her manager presented himself as a patient for a hip X-ray, she pointed the machine towards his knee, not his hip, which was a radiation breach causing unnecessary exposure, which could cause cancer. At her three-month review in April 2023, she said she was “more like a manager in her previous role” and had worked at the hospital reception desk in India. She also said she had worked with CT scanners and not X-rays. She was then told she would be put on authorised leave that could leave to termination. On April 24, 2023 she resigned.
