“Is English your first language?"
A speech and language therapist who falsely claimed English was her native tongue was struck off after admitting she could not understand her colleagues.
Sai Keerthana Sriperambuduru joined the York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in October 2023.
On her application form, she claimed that English was her first language and was therefore not required to prove her proficiency in speaking it.
But within a few weeks of starting the role, colleagues discovered she appeared unable to communicate with patients or staff.
She was called into a review meeting on November 7 and admitted that Telugu was her native language, not English as she had previously claimed.
One month later, she said she was taking regular English lessons outside of work but was struggling with transcribing conversations due to children or parents speaking quickly.
She was dismissed eight months after she was initially hired.
Ms Sriperambuduru told a Health and Care Professions Tribunal Service hearing that her education was taught in English and argued it could therefore be considered her first language.
However, the panel disagreed, ruling that she intended to deceive the Trust in order to gain employment. As a result, she was removed from the register by the Health and Care Professions Council.
In the application form for the role, candidates are asked about their English proficiency.
It states: “Is English your first language? You should only indicate that English is your first language if it is the main or only language you use on a day-to-day basis.
“Having studied English or undertaken education or training at an institution where the medium of instruction is English does not necessarily mean that English is your first language.”
Despite this guidance, Ms Sriperambuduru maintained she had not intended to mislead the Trust.
She claimed that she “genuinely believed that English could reasonably be considered my first language in the context of my education and professional practice”.
In a written submission, she told the panel: “I did not understand that the HCPC definition required English to be the primary language used in all day-to-day life circumstances as understood in the UK regulatory context.”
Her line manager revealed that during the recruitment process, Ms Sriperambuduru requested to use a chat-box facility that allowed interviewers to type questions instead of conducting the interview face-to-face.
She described this as “very unusual” as Ms Sriperambuduru lived in the UK at the time.
The panel found that this demonstrated an attempt to conceal her lack of proficiency and indicated dishonesty.
Her line manager added that issues with her English proficiency and its impact on her ability to work were identified during her first review meeting, just two weeks after she began her role.
She noticed deficiencies in Ms Sriperambuduru’s English in both her conversations and written work.
The concerns were particularly significant given the demands of the position, which requires clear communication and the ability to recognise patients’ speech difficulties, including punctuation, sentence structure and grammar.
Ms Sriperambuduru later admitted to her line manager that English was not her first language.
During her second probation meeting, she said she had been struggling with transcribing due to children or parents speaking quickly. Her line manager explained that transcriptions are used to record the sounds made by patients in order to identify where any difficulties arise.
A spokesperson for the York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said:
“Ms Sai Keerthana Sriperambuduru was employed by York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust between October 2023 and June 2024.
“Her employment was terminated in June 2024.
“The Trust referred the matter to the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC), and Ms Sriperambuduru has not worked for the Trust since.”
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