A surgeon, who was suspended for sexually and racially harassing junior colleagues, is free to work again after the courts rejected a bid to have him struck off.
James Gilbert, a high-profile transplant surgeon, was suspended for 12 months in 2024 after a medical practitioners’ tribunal service found he had sexually and racially harassed multiple junior colleagues at Oxford University Health Foundation Trust.
The General Medical Council (GMC), which regulates doctors, argued the suspension did not go far enough and said he should instead be erased from the medical register, which would ban him from working as a doctor. But it failed in its fourth attempt to have the decision overturned at the Court of Appeal on 16 January.
Mr Gilbert’s suspension expired in September 2025, and he is currently registered as working at The Royal Buckinghamshire Hospital.
In April, high court judge Mr Justice Calver ruled that Mr Gilbert should have a 12-month suspension rather than be struck off, saying he agreed with the tribunal’s decision that erasure from the medical register would be a “disproportionate” punishment.
Dismissing the GMC’s latest appeal, Lady Justice Andrews said: “I am satisfied that the conclusion reached by the judge was one which was open to him, and one with which there is no basis for this court to interfere. There is no substance in the criticism that he failed to properly apply the guidance or that his reasoning was deficient. I, too, would dismiss the appeal on all grounds.”
The only route for further appeal would be for the GMC to take the case to the Supreme Court. The regulator said it was currently reviewing the appeal court’s decision.
In a statement to The Independent, the four NHS workers Mr Gilbery was found to have harassed said: “James Gilbert was proven to have sexually harassed and assaulted multiple surgeons who trained under his mentorship and educational supervision over a period exceeding a decade. Several of these incidents occurred during live surgical procedures, placing patient safety directly at risk.”
“As the targets of his misconduct, we encountered a profound absence of institutional safety at every level in our attempts to act in order to protect both patients and colleagues… Today marks a deeply troubling moment for the British public and the medical profession, and stands as a stark and damning indictment of the standards deemed acceptable for doctors in the UK.”
Following publication of the ruling, a GMC spokesperson said: “Our position is very clear – there is no place for sexual misconduct in healthcare, and we have always maintained Dr Gilbert should have been struck off. We appealed twice in this case to secure an outcome that we felt would protect patients and uphold confidence in the profession.”
Following the latest ruling, Professor Vivien Lees, senior Vice-President of the Royal College of Surgeons of England (RCS England), said there was a need for “significant systemic reform, including reviewing current sanctions” saying, “the current system of medical regulation has too often failed targets of misconduct”.
“Instead of delivering justice, it has frequently compounded trauma, allowed perpetrators to remain in positions of authority, and ultimately undermined patient care,” she added.
Mr Gilbert has been approached for comment.
