Suspended consultant sent home ‘at risk’ QMC patient
TRIBUNAL STRIKES OFF FORMER LOCUM SPECIALIST
A DOCTOR who was suspended and wss being investigated by a regulator failed to recognise the seriousness of the condition of a patient in a Nottingham hospital who later died, a tribunal has ruled.
Dr Ajit Joe Pothen, who had been working as a locum ENT consultant at the Queen’s Medical Centre, was alleged to have discharged a patient having not adequately considered information about the their progression and observations.
His care – including his failure to speak with nursing staff who had been monitoring the patient, information which should have been a significant part of his decision making – was deemed to have fallen below the standard expected.
A report said that the patient was “at a considerable risk at the time of he discharge”. The GP has now been struck off the Medical Register after a tribunal determined his fitness to practise was impaired.
During his time in Nottingham he was under the investigation of a Dutch regulator and had been suspended by a hospital in Holland.
Dr Pothen was employed by Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust (NUH) from February to July 2017.
But he was suspended from Nottingham clinical duties within days.
An NUH spokesman said: “As soon as we were aware of the incident in 2017 involving Ajit Pothen we suspended him from clinical practice.
“We pride ourselves in putting our patients first, and take any deviation from this very seriously – we apologise to the family affected by his actions.”
The tribunal was called after the General Medical Council received a referral from NUH relating to the care Dr Pothen provided to the patient in Nottingham.
The incident happened on February 3, 2017.
Medical notes indicated that the patient had presented to the Emergency Department (ED) with difficulty breathing, a condition which Patient B had been suffering from for months but which had deteriorated on the day of admission.
A report from the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) says the patient was initially assessed by nursing and medical teams and reviewed by a separate doctor.
The female GP performed nasendoscopy – which found the “vocal cords were moving abnormally”.
The patient was reviewed by Dr Pothen, who obtained a “brief history”, examined the patient and repeated the nasendoscopy, a test to look inside the nose, throat and voice box.
The report adds: “It is stated that Dr Pothen then discharged Patient B, who died during the night.”
It was reported that Pothen had applied to work as a consultant otolaryngologist with NHS Forth Valley in Scotland.
But at the time of his application he was being investigated by the Dutch regulator regarding his performance as a consultant in head and neck surgery at the University Medical Center in Utrecht. The doctor also applied for a locum consultant position at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust (NUH) – but it was alleged that Dr Pothen provided “misleading information” by not disclosing the Dutch investigation and giving the impression the investigation was an internal hospital enquiry.
Other concerns included the suggestion that, at the time of the applications and interviews, Dr Pothen was suspended but gave a false impression that he was still working in hospital.
The tribunal received witness statements and heard evidence from medical professionals from several hospital trusts.
The tribunal noted that Dr Pothen’s previous good character was relevant in two respects – and, although not a defence to the allegations, Dr Pothen’s good character “could count in his favour when assessing the credibility of his evidence and whether it should be accepted”.
The tribunal found that when the doctor previously gave evidence to the Coroner’s Court he said he had not worked since March 2016.
It found that at the time he completed his application form for the NHS Forth Valley he “had been suspended by his Hospital Board for around seven months”.
The tribunal was also satisfied Dr Pothen gave the impression in his application form that he was a “busy consultant doing a variety of procedures on a regular basis”.
Tribunal chair Sean Ell said: “This was a false impression, as he was suspended.”
Mr Ell sad that at the time of the NHS Forth Valley application Dr Pothen “was aware that he was under investigation by the IGZ in the Netherlands”.
Meanwhile, in the application to NUH, the tribunal considered an email sent by Dr Pothen in October 2016 which claimed he was a “fulltime consultant and researcher”.
“When he wrote the email, Dr Pothen was suspended and had not worked for a number of months,” said Mr Ell.
“The tribunal considered the wording of Dr Pothen’s email gave a false impression of his circumstances, in that the email implied that he was still carrying out clinical duties at UMC Utrecht, when he was not.”
The tribunal also found that Dr Pothen had said the Dutch regulator may start an investigation – although at that stage he was aware he was already being investigated.
Dr Pothen submitted an application to NUH in December 2016 for the locum post of Consultant Head and Neck ENT Surgeon.
Mr Ell said: “At the time he completed the application, Dr Pothen had been suspended by the hospital for over eight months and was not working.
“The tribunal was satisfied that Dr Pothen gave the false impression that he was carrying out clinical duties at UMC Utrecht in the application at a time when they had suspended him.”
The tribunal determined that Dr Pothen’s fitness to practise was impaired by reason of misconduct – and it made the decision Dr Pothen’s name should be erased from the Medical Register.
Dr Pothen gave the false impression he was carrying out clinical duties when they had suspended him
Sean Eli