The Times - UK (2022-05-26)

the times | Thursday May 26 2022 2GM 23

News

An eye surgeon who treated Olympic

athletes and celebrities allowed the un-

trained owner of the high-street chain

AccuVision and his son to conduct

laser eye surgery on patients, a medical

tribunal has been told.

Dr Prashant Jindal, who is pictured

online with stars including Shane

Warne, is accused of signing docu-

ments indicating that he had conduct-

ed the procedures despite knowing he

had not. The General Medical Council

alleges that Jindal is unfit to practise

because of misconduct.

The tribunal heard that one of Jin-

dal’s patients, Greg Brady, was about to

become a professional boxer when he

had the surgery. Brady is pursuing a

civil claim against AccuVision for dam-

age to his eyes. He was referred to as

patient B at yesterday’s hearing.

Opening the hearing in Manchester,

Terence Rigby, representing the GMC,

said: “Mr Prashant Jindal is a consult-

ant ophthalmologist who specialises in

laser eye surgery. At the time of the

charges he worked at clinics all over the

country that were operated by AccuVi-

sion. This was a company owned by

Daryus Panthakey. His son, Johann

A gynaecologist who accused the NHS
of “lethal” failings in a BBC interview
has been banned from treating patients
for a year after she was caught moon-
lighting at three private hospitals while
on paid sick leave.
Shree Datta, 42, told her NHS
employers that she was unfit for work
despite secretly earning thousands
carrying out private surgical and
obstetric procedures at luxury clinics.
She performed three caesareans,
several biopsies and one hysterectomy
during 99 days of private work in
London at the Lister and Portland Hos-
pitals and the Guthrie clinic in King’s
College Hospital in 2019. She was re-
ported to the General Medical Council
after managers at King’s College found
out about her sideline and sacked her in
December 2019 for gross misconduct.
She admitted a string of misconduct
charges at the Medical Practitioners
Tribunal Service hearing in Manches-
ter and was suspended from medical
practice for 12 months.
In January 2017 Datta had told BBC
Radio 4’s Toda y that a “lethal combina-
tion” of underfunding and staff prob-
lems meant that up to half her opera-
tions were cancelled.

Gynaecologist

carried out

private work

on sick leave

Neil Johnston

Surgeon ‘let untrained

boss do eye operations’

Andrew Ellson

Consumer Affairs Correspondent

Panthakey, also worked there. Neither

of them were medically qualified in the

sense they were not doctors or sur-

geons but it is alleged by the GMC that

they respectively carried out laser eye

surgery on patient A and patient B and

in both cases Dr Jindal completed the

relevant forms and records as though

he had consulted the patients and per-

formed the surgery.”

Patient A, a British ski instructor

based in Switzerland, gave evidence

that he did not realise at the time of his

surgery that Panthakey was not quali-

fied. He said the owner of the chain had

been introduced to him as the surgeon.

He described Panthakey as a “domi-

nant” character. “There was no confus-

ing who was in charge,” he said.

The tribunal heard that patient A’s

surgery, in Birmingham, had been only

“partially successful” and that he had

entered into a dispute with AccuVision

about being misdiagnosed and over-

charged. Patient A said that after get-

ting “completely shut down” by the

company, he put a review of his experi-

ence online. Only when he was con-

tacted by a reporter who had been in-

vestigating AccuVision did he find out

that Jindal was supposed to have been

his surgeon and that Panthakey was not

qualified.

He said: “[Jindal had] absolutely no

involvement in what was going on with

my eyes. I was shocked when I saw all

my records that he was the surgeon.”

The tribunal heard that five years

after patient A’s operation, patient B’s

surgery at AccuVision’s clinic in Ful-

ham, southwest London, was conduct-

ed by Panthakey’s son, Johann.

The GMC read out part of patient B’s

statement, which said: “My medical

notes showed Prashant Jindal was my

operating surgeon. I categorically dis-

pute this because at no time had I ever

met him. Not before, during or after my

surgery.” The tribunal then heard that

Jindal was on holiday when the surgery

was conducted and that patient B had

“suffered as a result of the treatment”.

Patient B is to give evidence today.

Andrew Colman, representing Jin-

dal, said that his client had performed

both operations.

The hearing continues.

Doctors back

GP suspended

after dispute

over laptop

Kat Lay Health Editor

Leading doctors have rallied round a

GP who has been suspended over a dis-

agreement about her work laptop.

Dr Manjula Arora was suspended for

a month by the Medical Practitioners

Tribunal Service for dishonesty after

telling an IT department she had been

“promised” a laptop. In fact she was told

by her boss at Mastercall Healthcare, a

GP out-of-hours service in Stockport,

that he would “note your interest when

the next rollout happens”.

The tribunal found that when Arora

told a manager she had been promised

a laptop, she knew her boss “had made

no such promise”. She “had not set out

to be dishonest”, it concluded, but “had

exaggerated the position”. It said that a

one-month suspension would “send an

appropriate message” that her conduct

was unacceptable.

A GMC spokeswoman said the case

had gone to a full hearing because there

was a dispute of facts between Arora

and her employer. Dr Chaand Nagpaul,

British Medical Association council

chairman, said: “It is incomprehensible

that suspending this doctor from caring

for patients for a month, at a time of un-

precedented NHS pressures, is in the

public’s interest.”

G

olfers’

frustration at

losing a ball is

well known but

members at an

“edible” Cornish course

may have to search the long

grass for longer than most

(Peter Chappell writes).

The environmentally

friendly Gillyflower course

in Lostwithiel, created by

the founders of the Eden

Project, promises that

every inch of non-playing

land, including roughs, will

be used to grow fruit and

vegetables or encourage

flora and fauna.

The course on the banks

of the Fowey river has been

built from the remains of a

club that closed in 2014 and

was quickly taken over by

wildlife. The site is

overlooked by Restormel

Castle and the grass is

clipped not by lawnmowers

but by three Tamworth pigs.

The owners, Sir Tim Smit

and his son, Alex, are

looking to address the

considerable environmental

harm caused by the sport’s

popularity. Greens are a

drain on the surrounding

ecology as only grass is

allowed to thrive.

Joe Micklethwaite,

director of golf, said that

when his team came to the

site they identified areas

where nature could “thrive”

by being left without

intervention: “Not every

square inch of it needs to be

manicured and pristine.”

Smit said: “We are

creating several wildflower

mini-meadows to attract

and feed pollinators. We

have expanded the areas of

long rough, which we will

leave permanently uncut.”

The borders around

fairways will be home to

orchards for cider and

cherries for making liqueur.

The old first hole has been

remodelled into a potager

garden with rare varieties

of bean, asparagus, shallot

and rhubarb. A majestic

fallen tree has been left

toppled to form a place for

wildlife to thrive. Nearly

4,000 saplings have been

planted across the 20-acre

estate, which hopes to

welcome 1,400 people a

week at peak times.

During the six-year

restoration, the owners

discovered 4,911 stray balls

in the long rough, in lakes

and up trees, which will be

made available for

members to reuse.

Each of the nine holes on

the course, which opens on

June 3 with 300 members,

is being planted with

almonds, cherries, loquats,

quetsche, mirabelles,

plums, greengage and sweet

prunes, as well as the

eponymous Gillyflower, a

Cornish apple variety.

Edible golf course from

Eden Project for players

who like their greens

Edibl

GETTY IMAGES

Couple tie

knot at last

after 60-year

engagement

A couple have got married after an

engagement lasting 60 years.

Alex Hamilton, 90, married Jane

Hamilton, 89, in Tillicoultry church,

Clackmannanshire, with the bride in an

electric wheelchair.

Both were married to other people

when they met and fell in love in 1956,

but waited six years until they got to-

gether. Both had children from their

previous relationships and they had

two daughters together.

Being parents and running a business

meant they were to busy to marry, they

said. Jane changed her surname to Ha-

milton by deed poll but their children

were not told until they turned 16 that

their parents were not married.

Jane was walked down the aisle on

Saturday by her granddaughter, Claire

McDonald, 29, while her grandson,

Craig McDonald, 23, made a wedding

cake decorated with edible wildflowers.

Sally McDonald, 59, the couple’s

daughter, said both her parents were

visibly nervous and that most people at

their age were thinking about funerals,

not getting hitched.

She said: “This is a major celebration,

it was really beautiful.

“I think Dad was quite emotional, it

was the ultimate gift he had to give her,

was to marry her.

“It was almost like this was the way it

should be, looking at what they have

done together, and the family coming

together for that celebration.”

McDonald described her parents as

“unconventional” for cohabiting dur-

ing a time when social conventions

were “fairly strict”.

The couple met in Jane’s home town

of Birmingham before later moving to

Scotland where Alex was from.

The Gillyflower course in

Cornwall, overlooked by

Restormel Castle, and created

by the founders of the

Eden Project, top left

Prashant Jindal is

accused of falsely

claiming that he

conducted the eye

surgery