Mercury PressA paediatrician is facing being struck off after allegedly falsely diagnosing three child patients with cancer.
Dr Mina Chowdhury, who worked as the director of a private firm in Glasgow, had been operating at a loss and had been under ‘financial pressure’ when he allegedly scared parents into paying for private treatment.
Dr Chowdhury informed one mum her daughter had stomach cancer that could spread if it wasn’t treated, before refusing to refer the child for NHS treatment. He also falsely diagnosed two other children before recommending scans and tests connected to his struggling firm, Meras Healthcare.
Mercury PressAs reported by the MailOnline, the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) will now rule if his ability to practise medicine is found to be ‘impaired’ due to misconduct. If this is found to be the case, he faces being struck off.
A watchdog has ruled Dr Chowdhury’s actions were ‘financially motivated and dishonest’, and said Dr Chowdhury didn’t refer the patients in question to the NHS paediatric oncology department.
Instead, the doctor guided them towards private healthcare, informing parents they would face long waiting times if they sought help from the NHS, while claiming certain equipment wouldn’t be available in Scotland.
The inquest into Dr Chowdhury’s alleged misconduct also found he had altered medical notes, with the allegations relating to private work taking place between March and August 2017.
Mercury PressDr Chowdhury has denied allegations of attempting to increase the concern of the patients’ parents for financial gain.
Tribunal chair James Newton-Price said:
The Tribunal has made findings that Dr Chowdhury failed to provide good clinical care to Patients A, B and C, including findings of fact that he diagnosed cancerous conditions without proper investigation and for which he recommended unnecessary and expensive testing in London.
He tried to persuade Parents A, B and C to pay for unnecessary tests in relation to unwarranted cancerous diagnoses.
The Tribunal is driven to the inescapable conclusion that Dr Chowdhury acted as it has found in order to increase the income or reduce the losses of his business and that all his actions were therefore financially motivated.
In October, the mum of one patient – referred to only as Parent A – informed the hearing Dr Chowdhury had asked her daughter to leave the room before telling her:
We are going to have a serious conversation. We are going to have a conversation that all parents dread. We are going to talk about the C word.
However, when the mum took her child to see accident and emergency medics, they could find no signs of the cancer Dr Chowdhury had diagnosed.
The mother has claimed Dr Chowdhury said her daughter would require blood tests costing £3,245 and would also need to travel to London for an MRI scan, without discussing NHS referral.
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Jules studied English Literature with Creative Writing at Lancaster University before earning her masters in International Relations at Leiden University in The Netherlands (Hoi!). She then trained as a journalist through News Associates in Manchester. Jules has previously worked as a mental health blogger, copywriter and freelancer for various publications.