Banned, doctor who lied that kids had cancer
A DOCTOR who frightened parents into paying for private treatment by falsely diagnosing their children with cancer has been struck off.
Dr Mina Chowdhury, 46, caused ‘undue alarm’ to the parents of three patients – one aged 15 months – by making ‘unjustified’ diagnoses so his company could cash in by arranging tests and scans, a medical tribunal found.
Chowdhury, a full-time consultant in paediatrics and neonatology at NHS Forth Valley, provided private treatment at his Meras Healthcare clinic in Glasgow.
But the clinic made losses, despite ‘significant’ potential income from third-party investigations and referrals for treatment – with patients charged a fee up to three times the actual cost. In all three cases, Chowdhury gave a false cancer diagnosis, before recommending ‘unnecessary and expensive’ private tests and treatment.
A Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) tribunal found him guilty of misconduct in August of last year and his fitness to practise impaired. It concluded that his actions were ‘financially motivated’ and ‘dishonest’ and aimed at boosting his clinic’s income.
Last night, the MPTS said: ‘The tribunal has determined to erase Dr Chowdhury from the medical register and imposed an immediate order of suspension covering the 28-day appeal period.’ Chowdhury was a consultant to three separate families over a six-month period in 2017, during which he told one family their child had cancer on their leg and an NHS referral ‘would be confusing’.
He told another family, without any clinical justification, that their toddler’s high level of B cells could be due to blood cancer or lymphoma
‘Conversation all parents dread’
– and that he knew a place in London that would offer treatment. The MPTS tribunal also found that he suggested a course of private treatment that was ‘disproportionately expensive’, without offering any referral for NHS treatment.
Chowdhury tried this with another family, telling them: ‘We are going to have the conversation that all parents dread. We are going to talk about the “C word”.’
He then advised the parents that their children should undergo a number of blood tests, costing them £3,245, and that they should travel to London for an MRI scan.
Chowdhury refused to write a letter to these patients’ GPs confirming his care and treatment.
The tribunal also noted his company was under financial pressure and his private clinical practice was not generating enough income.
Giles Powell, counsel for Chowdhury, previously told the tribunal that the doctor was currently on sick leave and had sold his house due to ‘financial difficulties’.