Markus Matkovits
Introduction
Markus Matkovits is a physiotherapist who was struck off the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) register in May 2024 after a panel found serious patient-care and record-keeping failings stretching across his time at Barts Health NHS Trust — including treating a respiratory patient while on restricted practice, providing contraindicated treatment, failures in the care of two other patients, and around 300 sets of incomplete patient notes. The panel found his fitness to practise impaired on personal and public grounds, cited very limited insight and a significant risk of repetition, and decided no lesser sanction would protect the public. The alternative allegations that he had falsified records and lied about treating the patient were expressly not proved.
Background Information
Matkovits worked as a registered physiotherapist for Barts Health NHS Trust. The allegation, as amended at the hearing, covered incidents from 2013 through 2018: on or around 11 July 2013 he treated a respiratory patient, Patient A, when he was on restricted practice and had been instructed not to assess or treat respiratory patients, and when the treatment was contraindicated; in April 2013 he failed in the care of Patient B — no on-call physiotherapy arranged, the patient not placed on the physiotherapy weekend list when requested, retrospective and inadequate notes, no risk assessment, no chest X-ray review and no treatment documented for a fractured humerus; and on 9 December 2013 he failed Patient C with no risk assessment, inadequate assessment, poor clinical reasoning and the use of a relative to help mobilise the patient. A caseload review on 7 January 2016 found approximately 300 sets of incomplete notes, and in November 2018 he failed to upload patient notes in a timely manner before going on leave.
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
Struck off over restricted-practice breach, contraindicated treatment and mass incomplete records. Particulars 1 to 5 were proved; the alternative false-account and dishonesty particulars were not proved, and the panel found misconduct rather than lack of competence.
The panel proved particulars 1 to 5: treating a respiratory patient despite a restriction and despite contraindication, the failures concerning Patients B and C, the roughly 300 incomplete records, and the delayed uploads. It did not prove the alternative particulars — that if he had not treated Patient A in the contraindicated manner, he had knowingly made a false entry in her records or given a false account to his supervisor — and the dishonesty allegation fell with them. The panel found the proved matters amounted to misconduct rather than lack of competence, and found current impairment on both personal and public grounds. Aggravating factors were that the matters were repeated and serious, that he had failed to follow a direct management instruction not to treat a category of patient, and that he had very little insight into his shortcomings: the panel found he fundamentally saw the problem as arising from the Trust’s failings rather than his own, and nothing in his submissions on sanction persuaded it he had moved from that position.
Public Reaction and Consequences
The striking-off order is recorded on the official HCPTS hearings site and on MedicWatch’s independent determination record, with Matkovits listed among struck-off allied-health practitioners on MedicWatch’s erasures list. The panel concluded that conditions of practice or a period of suspension could not address its concerns: with insight this limited, no evidence of remediation and a significant risk of repetition, it decided the only proportionate sanction was removal from the register. The determination does not record any public statement from the registrant.
Current Status
Matkovits was struck off the HCPC register by the decision dated 23 May 2024, ending his ability to practise as a physiotherapist in the United Kingdom. The panel’s finding that he blamed the Trust rather than acknowledging his own shortcomings is the central reason it gave for concluding that no lesser sanction was workable, and the not-proved dishonesty particulars remain expressly not part of the case against him. No appeal outcome appears in the fetched record.
Impact on Their Career/Life
Removal from the register closes Matkovits’s UK physiotherapy career, and the record he leaves is unusually unambiguous: a direct management instruction disregarded, contraindicated treatment given, hundreds of incomplete notes, and a panel that found he still located the fault elsewhere years later. Because the case was decided as misconduct rather than lack of competence, it reads as a finding about professional attitude as much as clinical skill — the framing any future regulator or employer reviewing his history will see first on the HCPTS site and on independent records such as MedicWatch.