Former Champneys doctor had nine-year patient affair

A FORMER Champneys spa doctor has been struck off after he had a nine-year affair with a patient.

Simon Berrisford, 57, began seeing the woman after meeting her during a consultation. The woman, named only as Patient A, was also given prescription drugs from Mr Berrisford until the couple split up in 2018.

After the break-up, Mr Berrisford, who was once in charge of beauty and anti-ageing treatments at a Champneys resort in Hertfordshire, was reported to the General Medical Council (GMC).

Patient A gave a statement to the GMC detailing the romance in which she claimed the doctor had made her “feel the most special person in the world” only to turn violent, “pushing her” during an outburst of temper.

Inquiries revealed between January 2015 and August 2018 he prescribed painkillers and sedatives purportedly for other patients so they could be taken by Patient A. At the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) in Manchester, Mr Berrisford, from Stretton, near Warrington, Cheshire, dismissed Patient A’s allegations against him as “persecutory nonsense” but was found guilty of serious professional misconduct. He admitted having a relationship with the woman but insisted she was never his patient at the time.

Mr Berrisford, who qualified in 1988, ran aesthetics and anti-ageing clinics and provided treatments at Champneys.

He also had a private clinic, Select Medical Group, in Cheshire, where he treated 10,000 patients, which included television celebrities and sports personalities.

The hearing was told that he met Patient A in 2009 while treating her in Colwyn Bay, North Wales.

Striking Mr Berrisford from the medical register, Dr Nigel Westwood, the MPTS chairman, said: “The tribunal acknowledges Dr Berrisford’s ongoing right to deny the allegation but found that his characterisation of the GMC’S proceedings as ‘persecutory nonsense’ exemplifies his hostile attitude towards his regulator.”