Peterborough surgeon who put wrong-sided prosthetic knee into patient before attempting cover-up struck off

Emyr Chowdhury claimed a labelling error was to blame for putting a right-knee prosthesis into the patient’s left side before spending months attempting to hide the truth.

He has now been removed from the medical register after the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service found he had acted “dishonestly” following the procedure in April 2016.

In its latest ruling, the MPTS said Mr Chowdhury “only admitted his dishonest behaviour” after an initial hearing and that it remained concerned that Mr Chowdhury had “not sufficiently reflected on the impact of his dishonesty on others”.

It said the surgeon’s dishonesty was “persistent,” having occurred repeatedly over nine months while he attempted to cover up his failings.

An earlier tribunal had ruled that Mr Chowdhury had:

. Implanted the wrong-sided replacement prosthesis having failed to check it was correct

. Failed to identify the mistake in a post-op X-ray that the wrong-sided replacement knee had been implanted

. Falsely claimed that X-rays showed the patient had the correct-sided implant

. Claimed there had been a “labelling error” rather than the wrong prosthesis being used, without proof

. Failed to reveal the surgical error to either senior staff members, the patient or their GP.

The latest hearing was convened to decide what sanction should be carried out against Mr Chowdhury, who worked for the North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust since 2008 where he was practising as a consultant orthopaedic surgeon specialising in hip and knee arthroplasty at Peterborough City Hospital.

In mitigation, the tribunal said that Mr Chowdhury had admitted his dishonesty, taken part in an ethics course, made “unreserved” apologies and was of previous good character.

But it concluded: “The tribunal was of the view that Mr Chowdhury’s persistent and covered up dishonesty demonstrated a deliberate and calculated disregard for the principles set out in Good Medical Practice.

“Mr Chowdhury’s conduct did not justify his patients’ trust in him and the public confidence in the profession.

“The tribunal considered that Mr Chowdhury had abused his position in a series of attempts to cover up his errors and had in so doing put himself above his care of Patient A and Patient A’s right to make informed decisions about his own treatment.

“Accordingly, the tribunal concluded that Mr Chowdhury’s dishonesty did amount to misconduct that was fundamentally incompatible with continued registration.”

Mr Chowdhury no longer works for the trust.

Chief medical officer Dr Kanchan Rege said: “After conducting a serious incident investigation internally we referred this case to the GMC (General Medical Council).”