Peterborough surgeon struck off for using wrong knee prosthesis

Peterborough City Hospital is run by the North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust

A surgeon who replaced a knee joint with the wrong prosthesis and did not tell the patient has been struck off.

Emyr Chowdhury, a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at Peterborough City Hospital, used a prosthesis for a right knee on a left knee in 2016.

He failed to adequately check the implant or report his error, a medical tribunal heard.

It ruled that Mr Chowdhury's "repeated and persistent dishonesty" required him to be erased from the medical register.

The Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) heard Mr Chowdhury had worked for the North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust since 2008.

On 11 April 2016, he carried out a total knee anthroplasty on Patient A, the tribunal heard.

'Labelling error'

Three days later, it was found and proven that he sent an email to a colleague stating "up to date x-rays" of the patient showed the "correct sided implant".

He went on to state that there was a "labelling error" with the prosthesis, but that it was the correct side.

The tribunal heard he was in no position to confirm this information and that he failed to report the error because he realised the wrong implant had been used.

He also failed to report it in a letter to the patient's GP, five months later.

Mr Chowdhury was also found to have "knowingly provided untrue information" to the patient by telling them it was "impossible to check" at the time of the procedure that the correct-sided replacement had been implanted.

Determining its sanction on Mr Chowdhury, who trained as a surgeon at hospitals in the UK and United States, the tribunal said "erasure" was the only option it had in order to "maintain public confidence in the medical profession".

The hearing ruled that Mr Chowdhury would be removed from the medical register within 28 days, unless he lodged an appeal.