Eye surgeon to the stars is banned over ‘ bogus’ cures
A CELEBRITY eye surgeon has been struck off after conning patients into having unnecessary eye implants.
Consultant ophthalmologist Bobby Qureshi used ‘pressureselling’ tactics to persuade patients with incurable agerelated macular degeneration (AMD) to have replacement lenses implanted.
The Harley Street doctor performed the surgery on actress June Brown, who plays Dot Cotton in EastEnders, who said she had been saved from blindness. Socialite Lady Annabel Goldsmith – mother of MP Zac Goldsmith – was another of his patients.
Qureshi has now been struck off for misleading elderly patients on the effectiveness of treatment and pressuring them into paying for the expensive surgery, charging up to £25,000 a time.
A Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service hearing in Manchester was told the experienced doctor developed an ‘elaborate, calculated and sustained dishonest plan’ in a bid to gain ‘substantial financial reward’.
In a damning finding, tribunal chairman Tim Bradbury said the doctor’s dishonesty was ‘serious, repeated and sustained’.
Mr Bradbury said: ‘Mr Qureshi abused his position and his patients’ trust in him and in the profession.’
Intraocular lenses are artificial implants which replace the eye’s natural lens when they become old and damaged – usually from cataracts.
They have been shown to improve outcomes for dry AMD, which causes slow deterioration of the Struck off: Bobby Qureshi cells at the back of the eye. But Qureshi was found to have falsely claimed the lenses could also help those with wet AMD – a less common but more severe and rapidly advancing form.
The tribunal heard 24 patients came forward after either being treated by Qureshi or paying for a consultation with him.
One patient revealed in the months after the procedure a ‘blob’ started to form in his peripheral vision.
When another patient told him she still could not read after surgery, he insisted her vision had improved. The tribunal heard he told her: ‘I’m a world famous ophthalmologist –are you trying to say you know more than me?’
Mr Bradbury said the use of ‘pressure-selling techniques’ amounted to serious misconduct. Banning him from working as a doctor, he said: ‘Mr Qureshi’s dishonesty was persistent, financially motivated and he put his own interests before those of his patients. His actions in recommending and/or carrying out surgery... placed those patients at risk of harm.’
The London Eye Hospital, which Qureshi founded and where he based his private practice, is in administration.
‘Sustained dishonesty’