Doctor banned over misleading child cancer fears

The hearing started at the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service in Manchester in 2019 but has now concluded

An NHS paediatrician who suggested children might have cancer in order to get parents to pay for private treatment has been stopped from practising medicine.

A misconduct hearing ruled Dr Mina Chowdhury told families their children had potentially cancerous conditions without a proper investigation.

Families were then urged to get further "unnecessary" private diagnoses.

Dr Chowdhury will now be removed from the medical register.

This means he will not be able to practice as a paediatrician.

Dr Chowdhury worked for NHS Forth Valley but the allegations relate to his work in Glasgow at a private clinic that he also operated.

The Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service misconduct hearing ruled that Dr Chowdhury had "failed to provide good clinical care" to three patients which included diagnosing "cancerous conditions without proper investigation".

The tribunal also concluded Dr Chowdhury tried to persuade parents "to pay for unnecessary tests in relation to unwarranted cancerous diagnoses".

In one of the three cases the tribunal considered, it determined that Dr Chowdhury had told a patient's mother that a high level of B cells could be due to blood cancer or lymphoma.

Then "without sufficient clinical justification" the paediatrician stated that he knew a place in London which could provide treatment when an NHS treatment was available in Scotland.

The ruling added that its "inescapable conclusion" was that Dr Chowdhury's actions, which were all undertaken during his private work, were financially motivated.

In its ruling, the tribunal said this was a case "where there has been persistent dishonesty in a number of areas which Dr Chowdhury has not fully acknowledged nor fully admitted".

It added that "only a sanction of erasure [from the medical register] was sufficient to protect, promote and maintain the health, safety and wellbeing of the public".

Dr Chowdhury has 28 days to appeal his sanction.