Surrey consultant struck off medical register over dishonesty

A “financially motivated” consultant, who inappropriately treated cancer patients with a machine he co-owned has been struck off the medical register.

The decision follows an earlier ruling by the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) which found consultant urologist Paul Miller acted dishonestly by not disclosing a financial interest.

Mr Miller, who was a practising consultant at East Surrey Hospital in Redhill, had referred five NHS patients and treated three private patients at the Spire Gatwick Park Hospital in Horley.

The tribunal heard that patients were referred for high intensity focussed ultrasound (Hifu) treatment at the private hospital, which rented the machine which was owned by Mr Miller’s company.

The tribunal concluded Mr Miller’s recommendation and treatment was inappropriate, either because standard treatments of radical radiotherapy or radical prostatectomy offered better prospects of a cure, or because their cancers were not of the kind for which Hifu was considered appropriate.

The General Medical Council’s Catherine Cundy, told the hearing Mr Miller had “taken no steps to demonstrate that he has reflected on or reconsidered his actions or the failings”.

Ms Cundy added that Mr Miller had “painted a picture of himself as a man thwarted and frustrated by the failure, as he saw it, of the Surrey and Sussex Healthcare Trust to get behind the emerging technology of Hifu”, but the reality was different.

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Posted by Tony May, Partner/head of Clinical Negligence Department, Chadwick Lawrence LLP (tonymay@chadlaw.co.uk ), medical negligence lawyers and clinical negligence solicitors in Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield and Halifax, West Yorkshire.

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