GMC | General Medical Council

Update on the MPTS hearing for Dr 'Bobby' Muhammad Ali Qureshi...



It's a complex process, and although it's been spelled out to me, I'm not going to attempt to explain it to you in anything other than simple terms

In camera, the tribunal will look at all the evidence, discuss, and decide whether or not they accept the allegations brought against Dr Qureshi as having happened in the way they were presented by the GMC.

If not, the hearing will end when the tribunal hand down that decision in August, date to be advised nearer the time.

However, if the allegations are accepted as true, then further evidence and submissions will be presented in September, after which the tribunal will make their decision on Dr Qureshi's fitness to practise.

He could receive a warning just not to repeat his actions, a suspension, or erasure from the GMC register, which would prohibit him from ever practising as a doctor in the UK again.

Meantime, I haven't yet had time to go through my notes, but when I get a chance I will post some of the evidence heard from Bobby Q on days I attended the hearing in Manchester last month.

'From: "Lewis Stubbs (0161_)" <lewis.stubbs@
Subject: RE: GMC Ref: 4155241
Date: 6 March 2019 at 12:59:36 GMT
To: SashaMBE <sasha@mybeautifuleyes.co.uk>

Dear Ms Rodoy,

Thank you for your email and call yesterday and for allowing me to take time to respond to the important points you raise.

I have now had the opportunity to seek clarification on these matters. In summary, it appears your main concern is that Dr Niall Patton, the GMC-instructed expert, misled the Tribunal when he stated he did not perform refractive surgery. You have noted a number of enquiries you have made suggests that Dr Patton does in fact carry out refractive surgery.

The issue of Dr Patton’s expertise and practise was discussed a number of times throughout his evidence on 7, 12, 14 and 15 February. In answer to this question, Dr Patton confirmed that he performs cataract and retinal surgery as the bulk part of his clinical practice. Strictly speaking, there are elements of this which are refractive surgery, however Dr Patton does not carry out refractive surgery in the absence of the context of cataract surgery and in light of this is not a refractive surgeon.

Dr Patton has confirmed that he does not carry out Clarivu procedures. I note in your email you state that calls to Optegra recently confirmed that Dr Patton does in fact do this. In response to this suggestion, Dr Patton has confirmed that he has checked the Optegra website and seen that it does indeed state he carries out Clarivu procedures. Dr Patton has confirmed that this is an error and he has not performed any Clarivu procedures in the 8 years he has worked for Optegra. In your call to Optegra, you will have spoken to an individual in a call centre working for Optegra who would have advised of the services carried out by Dr Patton based on that as advised on this website, which as noted above was in error.

The error on the Optegra website has been made apparent to them. The have confirmed that it is in error and they will correct it as a matter of urgency to prevent any further confusion.

Furthermore and central to the suggestion that Dr Patton misled the Tribunal in claiming to be a refractive surgeon, although the above evidences that Dr Patton is not a refractive surgeon, even if he had been it would in no way affect the validity of his evidence before the Tribunal at this hearing.

I hope the above clarifies matters for you and as such you will be removing what has now been established as wholly inaccurate comments regarding the GMC expert from your blog. This includes confirming that you will not be uploading the email below as I note you mentioned you had considered doing when we spoke yesterday.

With regards to the emails you sent to me on 3 March, I note that it appears [redacted] states his complaint has already been investigated by the GMC. It may be that the further information you have received from him was not uploaded with his initial complaint and as such he is at liberty to provide this to the GMC so we can consider whether it justifies reviewing at this complaint.

Kind regards

Lewis Stubbs
Solicitor
General Medical Council'

I replied...

'On 8 Mar 2019, at 11:49, SashaMBE <sasha@mybeautifuleyes.co.uk> wrote:

Dear Mr Stubbs

Thank you for your detailed response.

Before I address your points, please note that there is an error in the sixth paragraph of your email.

And, with respect, by its very definition, you are wrong to say that their are elements of refractive surgery in cataract and retinal surgery: cataract and retinal operations are performed for medical reasons, while refractive surgery is not, hence it being unavailable on the NHS.

I would also like to make it clear that I employ due diligence before publishing any information on my sites, and can assure you that it was not only an individual in Optegra’s call centre who advised that Mr Patton performed Clarivu.

In fact, across a period of two weeks, a total of four phone calls were made to Optegra’s London and Manchester clinics, when both a colleague and I were advised that Mr Patton definitely performed Clarivu, and would be available for a consultation with that procedure in mind. I do not accept that the individuals we spoke with had to refer to the Optegra website for their information.

Although I note that Optegra have now removed ‘Clarivu’ from under his list of specialities on their website, I have recently discovered further information to support my argument that Mr Patton misled the tribunal, and I believe it most definitely casts doubt on the validity of his evidence in this case, and I intend to provide the GMC with this as soon as possible.

I will therefore not be removing anything from my ‘blog’ - as you so describe it, but in the interests of transparency I will be publishing both my previous email and your response...'

So whilst Optegra have removed Clarivu from Mr Patton's list of specialities, Doctify have not.


www.doctify.co.uk/specialist/mr_niall_patton

And I understand that clinicians who advertise on Doctify are personally responsible for the content of their page, or would Mr Patton have us believe this was yet another error?

And while I would be very surprised if Niall Patton's ego had never led him to read his Optegra page during the eight years he's worked there, I leave you to make up your own mind

Simon Jackson QC, lead counsel for the GMC, has been cross examining Dr Bobby Qureshi since Monday afternoon, during which time the doctor has provided the tribunal (and me) with some fascinating information!

But before telling you more, this was my email to both GMC and defence solicitors





GMC response to follow...

(Read 7 February post for more about Niall Patton)

Update on Dr Bobby Qureshi's MPTS hearing - ‘New case of impairment by reason of misconduct’.

NB: When I have time, I will photocopy and publish the GMC’s lengthy list of allegations: 24 patients, anonymised as Patients A to X.

For the last two days the doctor has been giving evidence, opening yesterday with a Power point presentation to illustrate his tutorial on cataract surgery techniques, explaining the difference between wet and dry macular degeneration, and the intended benefit of iolAMD and EyeMax Mono lenses.

And that’s all I'm going to say on the presentation, because although interesting and informative, way too long for me to attempt to summarise!

Questioned by his own counsel, Mr Russell Davies, Dr Qureshi was asked to respond to the GMC’s allegations point by point, and this will continue on Monday, so it's possible that the GMC’s cross examination may not start until Tuesday or Wednesday.

When Mr Davies asked for his client's response to one of the allegations concerning financial motivation, I had to smile when Bobby Q disarmingly replied, ‘I don't believe I was financially motivated in any procedure I performed.’

There goes another flying pig

Last week I was contacted by one of Bobby Qureshi’s Light Adjustable lens patients: left with serious problems after bilateral implants in 2011, he underwent numerous reparative operations and subsequently made a complaint to the GMC, who told him there was no case to answer!

I have criticised the GMC on countless occasions, and will continue to do so, because in my opinion, like most of these organisations, they’re not fit for purpose.

And I have no doubt that had the Macular Society not stepped in and complained to the GMC, then Bobby Qureshi would be indulging his hobby of flying helicopters in Monaco, schmoozing with Sir Philip Green and others of his ilk, and his only problem juggling UK visits as a tax exile!

Meanwhile, another hypocrite - not least because Saj Khan operated on a number of London Eye Hospital patients whose complaints to the GMC are included in the allegations levelled at Bobby Qureshi, while Saj Khan is nowhere to be seen at the MPTS hearing, and nor has ever offered to support My Beautiful Eyes campaign for regulation!

www.rcophth.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/201...keting-Standards.pdf

4.6 The following are considered socially irresponsible and are prohibited:
4.6.1. Time-limited deals
4.6.2. Financial inducements
4.6.3. Package deals, such as ‘buy one get one free’ or reduced prices for friends and family.
4.6.4. Offering eye surgical procedures as competition prizes.

I've struggled with this post, not least because my notes are very lengthy - sometimes illegible, often unable to see what I'm writing due to poor vision, but I've also had difficulty deciding what to include or leave out, so finally decided to focus on my observations concerning Niall Patton


www.optegra.com/about/why-choose-us/our-...ons/mr-niall-patton/

I have never previously met Niall Patton, nor mentioned him on my sites, and don't think I'd never heard of him until told his name as the GMC’s medical expert witness in Dr Qureshi's tribunal hearing. But I have of course mentioned Optegra many times (with their own thread on this forum should you care to read it), and made numerous complaints to the ASA about their misleading advertising (mostly upheld), so perhaps that might explain Mr Patton’s rudeness and complete lack of civility towards me.

His antagonism was almost tangible, not even thanking me when I held a door open for him, whilst even Dr Bobby Qureshi now greets me with a smile, often politely gesturing for me enter the tribunal hearing room in front of him, and I believe that he, like many other refractive surgeons, has the intelligence to appreciate that it's not personal, I am simply doing my job.

Niall Patton's churlish behaviour was in fact a compliment, because I must be doing something right to have upset him, so I simply smiled sweetly in response to his childish pretence that I was wearing Harry’s invisibility cloak.

The hearing began with GMC counsel Christopher Rose asked Mr Patton for details of his qualifications and clinical practice.

Casually dressed, in a nondescript colour suit with just above ankle length trousers and a pale coloured open necked shirt, Niall Patton explained that he’s a consultant ophthalmologist, with a specialist interest in vitreoretinal surgery, at the Manchester Royal Eye Hospital.

Asked about the nature of his private practice, he said that it was primarily conducted at the Optegra

www.spectrum-uk.co.uk/news-events/events...d-macular-vision-iol

Searching for an image to accompany this post, I was surprised when I Googled ‘Bobby Qureshi‘ and my Facebook page came up, and even more surprised when I read the content I’d written almost three years ago - and totally forgotten


www.facebook.com/100003049068810/posts/807556542689307/

Back in Manchester to hear Dr Niall Patton give his evidence tomorrow at the MPTS hearing, I arrived just in time this afternoon to hear the evidence from Patient/Mrs W and her daughter Miss L.

Paying £15,000 for bilateral lenses, she and her daughter were both adamant that Dr Qureshi had assured Mrs W that while there were no guarantees, ALL of his patients had gained at least 30% improvement to their vision after surgery. Denied by the defence, but exactly what I’ve heard most of the other witnesses say.

Miss L said there had been no improvement to her mother’s vision after two operations in October and November 2016, and that the London Eye Hospital had subsequently and voluntarily offered a refund of £3,000. However, this was rescinded when they were informed that the hospital’s medical director was not authorised to make this offer.

Mr Davies seemed to be in the dark much of the time, confused as to whether Bobby was Dr or Mr Qureshi, and repeatedly referring to the London Eye Clinic, and even I was irritated after the fourth or fifth time, wanting to remind him it was the ‘London Eye HOSPITAL’, and I could sense Bobby cringe each time. (Although he might soon want to totally erase the name from people’s memories if he too is erased from the GMC register.)

Some of Mr Davies’ questions seemed pointless, as if he knew he was fighting a losing battle but needed to make an attempt to justify his fee: appearing exasperated when he was unable to budge Miss L on some of her evidence, and frustrated when he couldn’t elicit the answers he wanted from Mrs L, tiredly holding his head up with his hand by the end of the day.

I won’t bother with more about this, because it really is repetitive, but I do want to comment on the fact that, yet again, it was ophthalmic surgeon Mr Saj Khan who operated on Patient W, not Dr Qureshi.
www.lasereyesurgeryhub.co.uk/mr-saj-khan/

In no way am I defending Bobby Qureshi, but it seems to me that Saj Khan is also culpable. He was fully on board with The London Eye Hospital, performed many of these ops, and profited from them!

It will be interesting to see if Saj Khan will at the very least be offering evidence in his colleague’s defence.

The GMC’s medical expert, Dr Niall Patton, was listed to give evidence at Bobby Qureshi’s MPTS hearing today, but due to unforeseen circumstances it was disappointingly necessary to suspend the hearing until Wednesday.

As yet it’s unknown when Dr Patton will now appear before the tribunal, but I will of course let you know as soon as I do

Dr Bobby Qureshi's MPTS hearing continued

Three more witnesses gave evidence on Friday, and Mrs D was the first, via video link.

Her husband (deceased) had surgery in 2014, and when asked why he’d gone to the London Eye Hospital, she said it was her fault, because she'd seen so much advertising, and after googling Bobby Qureshi had no reason to doubt anything.

Patient D was a surgeon himself, and told his wife after the second procedure that he was disappointed to be told that Miss CW would be operating, under Bobby’s supervision.

Mrs D told the tribunal that he didn't say anything at the time because he’d been put into an embarrassing situation, with Miss CW introduced only when he was on the table, but that he was not happy having paid for Dr Qureshi. And a letter from Patient D to Bobby Qureshi after surgery repeated this allegation.

Denied by the defence, they claimed that Miss CW was an observer. Mrs D argued that, as a surgeon himself, with an excellent memory, she did not believe that her husband was mistaken.

Patient D was quoted £15,000 per lens, but Dr Qureshi said he was entitled to a discount because he was 'a medical man’. Yet Patient A was not a ‘medical’ person, given a £2,000 discount on condition she signed up on the day of her consultation (see 24 Jan post). Again, similar sales tactics to OE!

Post surgery, approximately four to eight months maximum according to his wife, Patient D was experiencing misting, but was unable to get an appointment with Dr Qureshi.

Mrs D said, ‘Off record, personally for Dr Qureshi, very disappointed that there was no aftercare, my husband would never have done that.’

She added, if he refuses to see patients post op, ‘How good is your research?”

Patient U and her sister both gave evidence after lunch.

With AMD, Patient U was registered legally blind before her surgery.

Promising her 30% improved vision in her left eye (with no sight at all in that eye she thought she'd be able to see), and 70% improvement to the limited vision in her right eye, Dr Qureshi fitted her with two lenses per eye.

Patient U's sister was a senior nurse with the NHS, and told the tribunal that she'd read up about the lens, that it was connected to NASA (OE make similar claim about laser), and that because BQ was so confident, expressing no doubts, telling them he’d done hundreds of these ops without problems, they believed there was nothing to lose.

Patients U’s sister said, ‘We thought he was the Messiah, that he would perform miracles.’

But Patient U told the tribunal, ‘I still go round in a fog, as I did before surgery.'

On the way back from Manchester last week it occurred to me that if BQ’s miracle treatment could have given sight to so many patients with AMD (Age-related macular degeneration), then surely this ‘revolutionary’ new treatment would have been made available on the NHS?

So I asked the opinion of an expert in this field.

He explained that the problem with the iolAMD and EyeMax Mono lens was that it was very early days, and should not have been used on patients without good trustworthy data.

He added, had he invented the lens, then he would have carried out a free ethics approved trial, and if that proved successful, over a period of 6-24 months, only then would it have been acceptable to ask patients to pay for this treatment, but even then with an inclusion criteria, refined during the trial process.

In layman’s terms, with a trial you would see who benefited most from the procedure, and of course those who don't, and future patients would be selected accordingly. Whereas Dr Qureshi seemingly sold this procedure to any desperate patient with AMD, some spending their life savings to pay for this!

I questioned Dr Qureshi’s extremely high fees, £11-15,000 per lens, compared to approx £2.5-3,000 for a regular lens used in cataract surgery performed at a private clinic.

I was advised that even though the Research and Development costs would need to be recovered, Bobby Qureshi’s fees were way too high. And, remembering that like most others with AMD, Patient U paid £22,000, so if there was no extra charge for her additional two lenses then it’s his time BQ was pricing so high.

And of course with thousands of people desperate to believe they could improve their vision with these lenses, had they been successful, there would never have been a shortage of customers, and BQ would have recovered his R & D costs relatively quickly.

Sadly, it's apparent that Bobby Q’s motivation was £££, leaving so many people not only without vision, but penniless too.

And I wonder if actress June Brown (aka Dot Cotton) paid for her surgery, because, just like Alan Titchmarsh, she provided priceless advertising for Dr Bobby Qureshi and his London Eye Hospital



The witness accounts are repetitive, so I have done my best to pick out salient points, and those I think will be of most interest to my readers. However, press and legal teams are welcome to contact me for more detail.

Meanwhile, some of you might be interested in reading this, 'CQC inspects London Eye Hospital after patients complain’.
www.cqc.org.uk/news/releases/cqc-inspect...er-patients-complain

Following the letter from health minister Steve Brine (prev post), this is a case in point proving the absurdity of the government’s repeated claim that the CQC are doing anything worth a damn to prevent damage being inflicted on so many thousands of people every year!

Government regulation is the ONLY hope for any control of the industry, who - just like the police - virtually self regulate, with anything from the omnipotent Royal College of Ophthalmologists quoted by the press, NHS choices, etc… without question!

The Royal College, just like the GMC, are funded by their surgeon members, and I am highly critical of both organisations, as I’ve often written.*

But while the College have no regulatory powers, the GMC does, yet closed so many complaints against ophthalmic surgeons, even when GMC appointed independent experts report that they performed below the 'reasonable standard expected from a consultant ophthalmologist’.

In my opinion therefore, the only reason Dr Qureshi is at a Fitness to practise hearing is because of the pressure exerted by the Macular Society.

I'm back in Manchester tomorrow, when the GMC’s medical expert will be giving evidence, and I will of course update you…

Meanwhile, to everyone reading - ophthalmic surgeons included - please keep in mind that I have to pay for travel and accommodation to attend the hearing, so any contributions to my costs are welcomed and much appreciated - DONATE link at top of page ????

* If you’ve only recently started following this page, scroll through the history and read how David Moulsdale (Optical Express founder/CEO) colluded with members of the RCOphth, including the chair, Moorfields surgeon Bruce Allan, to remove me from my nominated position as Lay Adviser to the Refractive Surgery Standards Working Group in 2015.