Struck-off doc’s appeal is thrown out by court
A disgraced doctor who wrongly diagnosed children with cancer in a bid to scare parents into seeking private treatment at a firm at which he was a boss has lost his appeal after being struck off.
Dr Mina Chowdhury’s fitness to practise was previously found to have been impaired after a tribunal ruled that he ‘created an unwarranted sense of concern’by suggesting the youngsters undergo medical treatment at his private clinic in Glasgow.
At a further tribunal hearing, held in Manchester in July 2022, the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) panel erased Chowdhury from the medical register and imposed an immediate order of suspension.
Chowdhury appealed the decision and on Tuesday, March 14, the Court of Session dismissed his appeal.
Chowdhury worked for NHS Forth Valley but in July last year the health board said the MPTS charges stem from his private work, carried out between March and August 2017.
According to MPTS documents, Chowdhury’s area of practice was in Stirling.
He scared the parents of three patients, the youngest of which was just a year old, into paying for scans and tests offered by Meras Healthcare.
Chowdhury also avoided referring the patients to the NHS for further investigation and made false entries to the patients’medical records.
The MPTS found that his actions were‘financially motivated’and ‘dishonest’.
In their findings, it was noted‘the tribunal found Dr Chowdhury was reluctant to provide further evidence in relation to the number of private patients he treated, the staff he employed, and his financial accounts. He had to be asked several times before providing that information’.
It also found that in his oral evidence, he was‘at times less than candid and at times became unduly defensive’.
Dr Chowdhury was the managing director and shareholder of Meras Global Ltd and Meras Healthcare Ltd – based in Glasgow.
According to Companies House, Meras Healthcare Ltd was still actively trading as of this week, with Chowdhury still listed as a director.