A top neurosurgeon has been suspended after having s£x with a vulnerable female patient and prescribing her addictive painkillers.
Dr Chirag Patel, who worked at the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff, UK, first operated on the woman – referred to as Patient A – to remove the damaged part of a disc in her spine, a tribunal heard.
He then started a s£xual relationship with her in 2019 after performing a further surgery the same year.
By February 2023, their relationship had ‘deteriorated’, tribunal chair Remi Alabi said, and Patient A reported the surgeon to the police, who instead notified Cardiff and Vale health board.
Dr Patel was last month admitted to a s£xual relationship and sending the patient ‘explicit images’, as well as prescribing the vulnerable patient drugs, including the addictive muscle relaxant Diazepam.
The panel concluded the doctor had shown ‘a reckless disregard for patient safety’, continuing with prescriptions even after she had missed appointments and neglecting to tell her GP or even make a note in her records.
Ms Alabi added that by not breaking the relationship off, the surgeon had ‘put his personal interests – namely securing his career, reputation and family relationships – above Patient A’s proper care’.
Despite being told Dr Patel was the only surgeon in NHS Wales able to carry out certain surgeries for neuropathic pain, the panel handed him an eight-month suspension to ‘protect the public from the risks posed by [his] misconduct’.
Chair Mrs Alabi said the surgeon claimed he was ‘going through some marital difficulties’ at the time his relationship with the patient began.
The doctor said: ‘When I persisted in telling her that the relationship had to end, Patient A threatened to reveal our relationship to others, such as my employer and colleagues.
‘I was afraid if she did so, I could lose the job I so loved and had worked so hard to obtain. Given my speciality, this would have a knock-on effect on other patients if I was unable to work.
‘With the benefit of hindsight, I know I should nonetheless have ended the relationship and been honest with my employer. However, at the time I felt panicked and unable to break it off – a decision I now bitterly regret.’
The surgeon prescribed Patient A an opioid painkiller known as MST until January 2023, along with Diazepam.
He operated on her a third time the same year when he inserted a spinal cord stimulator, four years after the two initial surgeries.
The panel concluded the patient was ‘vulnerable’ and her repeated requests for painkillers may have been the result of addiction.
A voicemail left for the surgeon by the patient was played to the tribunal, demanding she ‘have that prescription’ and threatening to report him to police.
She went on: ‘Chirag, you had one chance, two chance, three chances, and more chances. You’re in the country doing your job, I don’t want to f*** you over but my spine is f***ed, right?
‘I’ve given you chance after chance after chance. Do you know what? I could just write a book on you, okay?
‘You going to man up and meet me, or are you going to be a cowardly c***, like I think you are? You’re no God, love.’
In his evidence, Dr Patel claimed: ‘I would only see her under the threat of blackmail and to appease her.
‘Any romantic or friendly relationship had completely ended at this point, and our ongoing relationship was based purely on hostility and blackmail by her towards me.’
He went on: ‘Patient A had asked for £11,000 previously, which I did not have, so I instead offered to give her £5,000 from my savings.’
Dr Patel claimed to be ‘deeply remorseful’ for prescribing the medication while in the ‘personal relationship’.
He said: ‘It is no excuse that I did this under the threat of blackmail and exposure.’
The tribunal was told the complaint against Dr Patel arose when the patient was in ‘a period of psychosis’.
General Medical Council barrister Robin Kitching argued the surgeon should be struck off due to a risk of him repeating his behaviour as he had not shown ‘sufficient understanding’ of why he behaved