David Woodhouse

Introduction

David Woodhouse is an occupational therapist whose name stood on the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) register under number OT55272. On 25 August 2026, at the close of a substantive hearing that had run from 17 August, a Health and Care Professions Tribunal Service (HCPTS) panel found his fitness to practise impaired and ordered him struck off the register. The case arose from locum work between September 2023 and January–February 2024, in which the panel found he worked beyond his occupational therapy scope, made religiously discriminatory comments, gave inadequate care and kept deficient records for nine patients. The panel rejected several allegations and expressly found no lack of competence. Woodhouse engaged with the hearing process to a limited extent, and the apology the panel credited him with was, in its words, heavily qualified.

Background Information

The published record identifies Woodhouse as a Band 7 occupational therapist — a senior grade which, the panel observed, would have been expected to make him a role model for junior colleagues and help set the standard. The proved findings concern locum positions held between September 2023 and January–February 2024, including a locum position at the Western Isles, where the record notes he encountered problems with the MORSE system. The panel found a disregard for training and policies at the two employing organisations involved in the fitness to practise case, and a breach of trust demonstrated by an inability to work collaboratively with colleagues within three different organisations. He also carried prior regulatory history: within a determination from 2023 he was recorded as having said he was “ashamed” of his behaviour and that it would not be repeated. The published record does not name his employing organisations.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Adjudicated vs. alleged. The findings below come from an HCPTS panel determination, which decides allegations on the balance of probabilities. They are regulatory findings, not criminal convictions. Several particulars were not proved, and the panel expressly rejected lack of competence as a statutory ground.

The HCPC alleged that, during his locum work in September 2023 and January–February 2024, Woodhouse worked beyond his occupational therapy scope, made unprofessional and religiously discriminatory comments, provided inadequate care, exercised poor clinical judgement and kept inadequate records, with allegations spanning patient prioritisation, equipment, discharge planning and treatment. Misconduct and lack of competence were alleged as alternative grounds for impairment.

The panel found serious misconduct in working beyond his scope, in religiously discriminatory comments, in an insensitive comment to a patient, in delegating a personal care assessment inappropriately, in failing to order a wheelchair, in unjustified kitchen trolley recommendations, in failing to identify a suitable discharge bedroom, and in deficient records for nine patients. Two further comments to a colleague were proved but found not to amount to serious misconduct. The panel did not prove the patient-prioritisation allegations (particulars 5b and 6), the unsuitable sling allegation (7b), the failure to discuss the trolley with a physiotherapist (8a(ii)), inaccurate measurements (9a), or the hand-treatment and compression-glove allegations (9c). It expressly rejected lack of competence as a statutory ground, finding impairment on both personal and public grounds.

On mitigation, the panel credited limited engagement with the process and a small-degree apology to Patient C, though “this was a heavily qualified apology”; it also noted his MORSE-system problems in the Western Isles, while observing that an experienced locum OT should have adapted to new processes or sought help. Aggravating factors included “Putting patients at the risk of harm”, actual harm to Patient C, who found his comment insensitive and hurtful, breaches of professional boundaries involving Patient A and an uninvited intervention with a colleague’s patient, discriminatory views, attitudinal issues, “evidence of similar behaviour previously”, and the possibility of repetition: eleven days after the 2023 fitness to practise hearing at which he said he was “ashamed”, he repeated his behaviour in his Western Isles locum position.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The published record contains no press coverage of the hearing and no public statements from Woodhouse, patients or colleagues — the qualified apology noted above is the only recorded response from him. The concrete consequence is the striking-off order itself. MedicWatch, which maintains the practitioner-facing record of the decision, aggregates regulator outcomes and states it does not editorialise the regulator’s findings.

Current Status

Woodhouse is struck off the HCPC register, the erasure having been decided on 25 August 2026. A separate interim suspension covers the appeal period and, if appealed, the appeal’s determination, for a maximum of 18 months — the record is explicit that this is not the duration of the striking-off order, which takes effect under the applicable appeal arrangements. Before the substantive hearing, an interim orders hearing on 6 March 2026 before the Conduct and Competence Committee had confirmed the interim suspension originally imposed on 19 March 2024. His MedicWatch profile records his registration status as not yet verified and directs readers to the official HCPC register for current status. The published record shows no appeal.

Impact on Their Career/Life

Striking off ends Woodhouse’s ability to practise as an HCPC-registered occupational therapist in the UK unless a future restoration application succeeds. The panel’s findings — repeated misconduct across a short timescale, discrimination, boundary breaches and the repetition of behaviour he had said would not recur — record why it considered him at ongoing risk of repetition. The published record contains no information about his circumstances beyond the case, and nothing on this page should be read as going beyond it.

Sources

• *MedicWatch, “HCPTS orders David Woodhouse to be struck off after misconduct findings”, 25 August 2026 — source
• *MedicWatch, “David Woodhouse — Interim restrictions imposed · 6 March 2026” — source
• *MedicWatch, “David Woodhouse — Struck off the register | Health and Care Professions Council OT55272” — source