Mark William Stokes
Introduction
Mark William Stokes is an operating department practitioner who was registered with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) under registration number ODP14875. On 20 January 2026, at a review hearing of the Health and Care Professions Tribunal Service (HCPTS), a panel of the Conduct and Competence Committee directed that his name be removed from the HCPC Register. The review concluded a case that had begun with misconduct findings over a February 2025 absence, followed by a suspension in July 2025 that he did not engage with, leading the January 2026 panel to direct erasure.
Background Information
The published record identifies Stokes as an operating department practitioner holding HCPC registration ODP14875. The underlying hearing evidence came from two Trust witnesses — the Matron in the Trauma and Orthopaedics Department and the Deputy Matron in Theatres — but the record does not otherwise name his employer, and this page does not guess at details it leaves out. MedicWatch, an independent record service that aggregates publicly published decisions of UK healthcare regulators without editorialising their findings, carries his case with erasure as the most recent published outcome, notes his registration status as not yet verified, and directs readers to the official HCPC register for his current position.
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
Regulatory findings, not a criminal case. The findings below come from HCPTS panels applying the civil standard — the balance of probabilities. They are regulator findings, not criminal convictions, and no criminal proceedings form part of this case. The substantive findings were made at a hearing held in Stokes’s absence; a July 2025 review panel extended his suspension, and the January 2026 review panel directed erasure.
The incident at the root of the case took place between 25 and 27 February 2025. The substantive hearing, held in Stokes’s absence because he did not attend, heard evidence from the two Trust witnesses about the operational and financial consequences of not knowing whether cover would be needed for an absent member of theatre staff. The panel found particulars 1 and 2(a) proved. It accepted evidence that he had not attended the Trust’s disciplinary process, but found particular 2(b) not proven, on the basis that the HCPC had not proved he had been under an obligation to attend it — a finding recorded as part of the published case.
On misconduct, the panel found Stokes had breached standards from the HCPC’s Standards of conduct, performance and ethics (2016): working in partnership with colleagues (2.6), treating colleagues with professional respect and consideration (2.8), justifying the public’s trust and confidence in his profession (9.1), and co-operating with any investigation into his conduct or competence (9.6). It was satisfied the proven facts amounted to misconduct. The record reproduces the panel’s misconduct conclusion only as far as its opening words, “The Panel was satisfied…”, and does not carry the remainder of paragraph 68 of the written determination.
What followed was a sanction ladder that Stokes, on the record, never climbed down to meet. On 7 July 2025 a review panel found he remained impaired because he had not engaged and had provided no evidence of insight, remorse or remediation; it extended his suspension for six months from 27 July 2025, with a further review due before 27 January 2026. At the review held on 20 January 2026, the panel directed removal from the HCPC Register.
Public Reaction and Consequences
The published record contains no press coverage of the hearings and no public statements from Stokes or any other party. The concrete consequences run from the substantive findings over the February 2025 absence, through the six-month suspension extended on 7 July 2025, to the erasure directed on 20 January 2026. Each stage reflects the same finding: absence of engagement. The July panel extended suspension expressly because he had not engaged and had shown no insight, remorse or remediation, and the January review panel’s decision to direct removal rather than extend suspension again marks the point at which continued non-participation exhausted the intermediate options. The record discloses no appeal and no further proceedings.
Current Status
Stokes was struck off the HCPC register by the review panel’s direction of 20 January 2026. The suspension extended on 7 July 2025 has been superseded by the erasure. His MedicWatch profile records erasure (struck off the register) as his most recent published outcome, notes his registration status as not yet verified, and directs readers to the official HCPC register for his current position, including whether any appeal was pursued.
Impact on Their Career/Life
Striking off ended Stokes’s registration and his ability to work as an operating department practitioner in the UK unless a future restoration application succeeds. The case illustrates how fitness-to-practise proceedings resolve against a non-participating registrant: the original misconduct concerned a short absence and its operational consequences for theatre colleagues, but erasure followed from the panel findings of persistent non-engagement — no attendance, no insight, remorse or remediation — until the review panel directed removal. Beyond the determinations, the published record contains no information about his circumstances since the decision.