Kids’ doctor ‘faked patient NHS records to scare parents into using his private firm’
Watchdog hears claims of dishonesty
AN NHS doctor will today face a watchdog over claims he scared parents into taking kids to his private healthcare firm.
Dr Mina Chowdhury, a paediatrician with NHS Forth Valley, will go before a tribunal accused of “financially motivated and dishonest” practices relating to three families who were in his care.
The Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) alleges that Dr Chowdhury created an “unwarranted sense of concern without clinical justification” and recorded information in patients’ records which he “knew to be untrue”.
During the consultations with three patients in Stirling he is alleged to have failed to arrange referrals for NHS investigations or treatments and instead suggested private medical treatment.
The MPTS states that during these consultations, between March and August 2017, Dr Chowdhury was managing director and shareholder of Meras Global Ltd and Meras Healthcare Ltd, and his actions in relation to the patients were “both financially motivated and dishonest”.
The General Medical Council register shows Dr Chowdhury qualified as a doctor in 1998 after studying at the University of Glasgow.
He qualified in paediatrics in 2013 and is recognised as a trainer by the GMC.
Meras Healthcare was incorporated in 2014 and is still in business.
The website for Meras Children’s Healthcare, a branch of the firm, offers a “team of children’s healthcare professionals”, including specialist paediatricians, nurses, physiotherapists, speech and language therapists, dietitians and psychologists.
The lead clinic and registered headquarters are based in Glasgow, but the company says it has a “growing network of satellite clinics developing throughout Scotland”.
The website says the business is a “community centred organisation” and proceeds raised are put back into the community for the benefit of babies and children.
It says: “This may take the form of re-investing the funds back into the clinic to improve the service and enhance the quality of patient care or we may donate the funds to charities that are working to improve the lives of children across health, education and welfare domains in their respective communities.”
Meras Global was dissolved in January this year.
Dr Chowdhury’s tribunal is set to run until November 1 in Manchester.
We tried to approach Dr Chowdhury for comment at his home in Glasgow but he could not be reached.