Ihab Y A Sharaf
Introduction
Ihab Y A Sharaf is an operating department practitioner who was struck off the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) register in June 2025 after a reviewing panel found he had failed, over several years, to develop sufficient insight, reflection or remediation for serious conduct and safety failings at Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust — including threatening behaviour towards colleagues, attempting an arterial cannulation outside his scope of practice, leaving an anaesthetist without support during surgery, and handing controlled-drugs keys to an unqualified colleague. His route to erasure ran through an unusual detour: the Professional Standards Authority appealed an earlier review decision to the High Court, which quashed it and substituted stricter conditions — and eighteen months later he was struck off anyway.
Background Information
Sharaf was employed by Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust from 2 October 2017, working as an operating department practitioner. The substantive findings against him covered his first months in the post: on 27 November 2017 he shouted at and physically obstructed Colleague A from entering a room, saying words to the effect of “I will not let you pass until you admit that you were wrong”; on 6 December 2017 he attempted an arterial cannulation on a patient, acting outside his scope of practice; on 5 February 2018 he left theatre during a surgical procedure to obtain further Propofol, leaving the anaesthetist without proper support; on 15 February 2018 he gave the controlled drugs cupboard key to Colleague E, who was not qualified to hold them; and on 16 February 2018 he performed venous cannulation without the required employer training, then denied to his manager that he had cannulated patients. The aggression continued that week — grabbing Colleague E’s arm and wrist, and on 19 February 2018 throwing a bottle of water at a door, throwing a small laryngoscope handle across the room, and picking up scissors, pointing them towards his abdomen and saying words to the effect of “is this what you want?”. He gave oral evidence at the substantive hearing, which found the majority of matters proved.
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
Struck off after a PSA appeal tightened his conditions and he still showed no insight. The High Court quashed a soft review outcome in 2024; the June 2025 review found his reflective work “cursory” and directed striking off from 27 June 2025.
After the substantive findings, a Conduct and Competence Committee panel made a decision on 3 April 2024 that the Professional Standards Authority successfully appealed: the High Court allowed the appeal, quashed the panel’s decision and substituted a four-month conditions of practice order requiring a written reflective piece using a structured reflective tool, a named team leader or manager to monitor his behaviour and policy compliance, confirmation of adherence submitted to the HCPC before any review hearing, and disclosure of the conditions to employers and agencies. At the June 2025 review the panel found none of it had worked: there was no evidence of sustained change or that the original findings had been addressed, and the reflective piece he provided for the review was described as “cursory” and insufficient. The panel found him impaired on personal and public grounds, found a real risk of repetition remained, concluded conditions and suspension were no longer appropriate, and directed that his name be struck off the register, the order applying from 27 June 2025.
Public Reaction and Consequences
The case is recorded across the official HCPTS hearings site — both the 2024 High Court outcome and the 2025 review — and on MedicWatch’s independent determination record, with Sharaf listed among struck-off practitioners on MedicWatch’s erasures list. The regulatory arc is itself the reaction: a regulator’s first attempt at a lenient review outcome was overturned by the High Court on the PSA’s appeal, and the tightened order still failed to produce the insight the panels were looking for. The determination records that the striking-off was directed because he had not developed the insight, supplied the required reflective evidence, or demonstrated remediation despite years under conditions.
Current Status
Sharaf was struck off the HCPC register, with the order applying from 27 June 2025, and can no longer work as a registered operating department practitioner in the United Kingdom. The proved case remains the 2017-2018 conduct at Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust, with the 2025 decision resting on his failure to remediate rather than on any new incident. No public statement from him and no further appeal outcome appears in the fetched record.
Impact on Their Career/Life
Sharaf’s registration is gone, eight years after the conduct that began the case — and the record shows a regulator that tried twice to salvage a practitioner who threatened colleagues, picked up scissors in a theatre corridor argument, and could not produce a reflective document the review panels found meaningful. For an operating department practitioner, whose job is to be the anaesthetist’s second pair of hands, the finding that he left one unsupported mid-surgery sits at the centre of the public record any future employer will read. The determination remains permanently searchable on the HCPTS site and on independent records such as MedicWatch.