Mubarak Muhammad Mutawakkil

Introduction

Mubarak Muhammad Mutawakkil is a physiotherapist whose suspension from the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) register was extended in September 2026 after a review panel concluded the original order needed to continue. The underlying case is one of competence rather than conduct: as a Band 6 musculoskeletal physiotherapist employed by North Cumbria Integrated Care Foundation Trust from November 2022, Mutawakkil was found at a final hearing in October 2024 to have performed below the necessary level across the breadth of the role — confusing medical terminology, insufficient information-gathering, inaction on clinical red flags, inability to perform a basic physical examination, inability to recognise pathology requiring further investigation — and to have provided inappropriate exercises for a service user that had to be stopped. He did not attend the final hearing and has not attended reviews of his suspension.

Background Information

Mutawakkil joined the trust on 21 November 2022, completed a two-week induction and was given a reduced caseload. Concerns about his practice were raised within the first two weeks, prompting the manager of the musculoskeletal physiotherapy team to carry out direct observations of his work. In her evidence to the final hearing panel, the manager described the shortcomings identified and the substantial support provided to him, confirming he had been receptive to it; although improvement was noted in his communication skills, his clinical skills did not improve. The trust suspended him on 30 January 2023 and dismissed him on 21 March 2023. The final hearing of the allegation ran from 14 to 17 October 2024, and the panel found most of the factual particulars proved.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Suspended on competence grounds; order extended on review. The findings are the HCPC panel’s civil-standard determinations on lack of competence and misconduct particulars. No criminal proceedings feature in the published decision.

The particulars found against him included failing, between 21 November 2022 and February 2023, to perform at the necessary level: using medical terminology that confused service users; failing to gather sufficient information on service users and their conditions; failing to act on red flags after asking questions; being unable to perform a basic physical examination; and being unable to recognise pathology requiring additional investigation. On or around 28 December 2022 he provided exercises for Service User A which were not appropriate and had to be stopped. Over the same period he failed to make adequate notes for the service users listed in a schedule. The original panel imposed a suspension order for twelve months, which came into effect in November 2024. A review hearing followed in October 2025, and at the review of 30 September 2026 the panel extended the suspension for a further four months on the expiry of the existing order.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The review panel applied the sanctions-policy guidance on what a reviewing panel may do: review panels’ sanctions do not include making a striking off order, but they retain the power to continue a suspension where the concerns remain unresolved. It found there was no evidence of insight. Mutawakkil did not attend the final hearing of the allegation in October 2024, and he did not attend the review hearings either, so the panels assessing his fitness to return have had no direct engagement from him at any stage since the case began. The extension to the suspension was framed in forward-looking terms: a further short period, on this occasion four months, that will enable a future reviewing panel to assess whether the existing order or some other order needs to be in place upon its expiry.

Current Status

Mutawakkil is suspended from the register under the extended order, which runs from the expiry of the previous twelve-month suspension. He remains dismissed by North Cumbria Integrated Care Foundation Trust since March 2023 and cannot practise as a physiotherapist anywhere in the UK while the order stands. The review cycle continues: another panel will consider the order again within months, with the power to extend further, replace it with conditions if workable and safe, or leave it to lapse if satisfied. On the published record, the inputs a reviewing panel needs — engagement, insight, evidence of remediated competence — remain absent, as they have been at every stage since October 2024.

Impact on Their Career/Life

The case shows the competence pathway working at its slowest speed: concerns surfaced within two weeks of an NHS start date, employer support failed to move his clinical skills, dismissal followed within four months, and the regulatory process has run for nearly four years without a single hearing he attended. The review panel’s inability to strike him off — its sanction toolkit stops at suspension — means an unremediated competence case cycles through extensions until the registrant engages or the panel judges the risk expired. The employer-side facts are documented in detail: induction, reduced caseload, direct observation, support offered and received, communication improving while clinical skill did not. For the profession, it records that a new-qualification physiotherapist’s gaps in examination, red-flag recognition and record-keeping are regulatory matters, not merely probation issues, once patients are assessed unsafely.

Sources

• HCPTS, “Mubarak Muhammad Mutawakkil — Review Hearing, Conduct and Competence Committee, Suspended,” September 2026. source