Source: www.dailymail.co.uk
Author: staff

A top surgeon has been banned from practising after he faked a patient’s records when he failed to spot a fatal throat cancer.

Mohamed Bahaa Madkour admitted to having got things ‘catastrophically wrong’ after he lied on a patient’s notes, claiming he’d sent her for MRI and CT scans, a General Medical Council hearing found. The ear, nose and throat consultant, who had treated hundreds of patients over a 20-year period at Ysbyty Gwynedd Hospital in Wales, even told the patient’s GP that he had sent her for tests when he hadn’t.

It wasn’t until five months later, that the woman, a heavy smoker who had been suffering paralysis of her vocal cords, nose bleeds and a sore throat, was referred to Mr Madkour a second time. She was eventually diagnosed with cancer, after an MRI scan revealed a large tumour in her throat. The woman, known only as Patient A, has since died.

Yesterday Mr Madkour, of Llanfairpwll, was stuck off the medical register for dishonesty. The GMC panel said it was the only way to protect public safety, and preserve confidence in the medical profession. The hearing heard how Patient A was sent home from Dr Madkour’s clinic in October 2006 ‘without proper exploration’ of her throat condition and without MRI or CT scans.

The specialist then wrote to the woman’s GP claiming he’d sent her for urgent MRI and CT scans. The panel, which reviewed the case over seven days in Manchester, also found Mr Madkour had been ‘dishonest’ and made ‘misleading’ false and retrospective entries in the woman’s medical records. ‘The result of this chain of events was that Patient A was discharged from your clinic with an undiagnosed cancer,’ said the panel in its judgement of the case.

Mr Madkour’s barrister, John de Bono, argued that his client should keep his licence, and that the public would be deprived of a good doctor. He said Mr Madkour regretted what had happened, and said there was no doubt, in relation to Patient A, that he’d got it ‘catastrophically wrong’.

But the panel said: ‘There is no room in the profession for a dishonest doctor.’