How gossiping chiropractor ruined patient’s baby surprise

A INDISCREET chiropractor has been reprimanded for breaking the news to a patient that her daughter was pregnant.

Benjamin Mathew, 40, ruined a surprise Mother’s Day announcement when he revealed the baby secret, a disciplinary panel was told.

The daughter told how she was six weeks pregnant when she was treated by Mathew in his clinic and confided in him about her condition.

The pregnant woman said she was ‘shocked, disgusted and angry’ when she then discovered that Mathew, pictured, had passed the news on to her mother, also one of his patients, without her consent. He was found guilty of unacceptable professional conduct by breaki n g patient confidentiality.

The hearing was told the woman had planned to tell her mother about the pregnancy on Mother’s Day a few weeks later. However, when she gave her mother a card announcing the happy news it was apparent that she already knew – and she told her how their chiropractor had gossiped.

She added: ‘Telling your mother you are pregnant should be a very special moment and he took that away. Mother’s Day was ruined.’

Mathew, of Cardiff Bay Chiropractic, was found guilty of ‘unacceptable professional conduct’ for a string of other failings.

He was found to have ‘ over-treated’ patients when they should have been referred for surgery as well making false claims about the benefits of using a chiropractor and performing unnecessary X-rays.

The conduct committee of the General Chiropractic Council imposed a 12-month conditions of practice order which involves being regularly audited by a registered chiropractor.

The GCC report states: ‘The committee found that Mr Mathew had made wideranging and fundamental errors in his clinical practice in relation to three patients over a considerable period of time.

Mathew also falsely claimed at a talk that the measles vaccine caused autism and that mammographic screening caused breast cancer

‘The talk touched on highly- emotive subjects for potentially vulnerable groups of the general public,’ the report added.