An Oxford GP is struggling to find work after five tribunals reviewing her professional performance found her practice "impaired".

Dr Lidia Hristeva, who is trained in paediatrics, has had her performance reviewed five times since 2018 after concerns were raised about her knowledge, technical skills, communication, attitude and time management skills.

She has had working conditions imposed continuously since the first tribunal in March 2018 such as needing to be 'closely supervised'.

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However, Dr Hristeva has been unable to find clinical work due to the conditions being reinstated at every tribunal review.

The latest review, held this month, "recognised that conditions have made it difficult for Dr Hristeva to gain a clinical position", but stated the conditions are "workable and measurable" and were therefore imposed for a further nine months.

Dr Hristeva, who qualified in 1982 in Bulgaria, began work in the UK in 1991 as a senior house officer in Birmingham, Croydon and Nottingham.

It was during her time working for the North Tees & Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust as a middle grade paediatric locum at University Hospital North Tees that concerns were first raised between December, 2013 and January, 2014.

The concerns were raised following errors regarding the canulation of a child.

The trust referred Dr Hristeva to the General Medical Council (GMC) and she underwent a performance assessment.

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She was subsequently referred to the first tribunal in March 2018 which found that Dr Hristeva’s professional performance was unacceptable in the areas of maintaining professional performance, relationships with patients, working with colleagues, clinical management and operative/technical skills.

It was found that Dr Hristeva’s practice was "impaired by reason of deficient professional performance" and an imposition of conditions for nine months was imposed.

The conditions were reinstated for nine months at a time in December 2018, September 2019 and June 2020.

At the review in April 2021, the tribunal considered that Dr Hristeva had taken "many reasonable steps" to address the matters including attended numerous courses, commencing a diploma, completing reflective statements, and applying for countless jobs.

The tribunal also "had sympathy" for Dr Hristeva’s position as it had seen evidence of her being declined jobs due to the conditions.

However, they were still reinforced due to her not working in a clinical setting since 2016 despite "extensive efforts" to do so.

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This month, Dr Hristeva told the tribunal she has been under investigation since 2014 and she is stuck in a "vicious circle" in having conditions imposed that did not allow her to obtain clinical work  and without clinical work to evidence remediation, remained impaired and under stringent conditions.

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This story was written by Gee Harland. She joined the team in 2022 as a senior multimedia reporter.

Gee covers Abingdon, Didcot, Wallingford and Wantage.

Get in touch with her by emailing: gee.harland@newsquest.co.uk

Follow her on Twitter @geeharland