Dr. Chirag Patel, a senior neurosurgeon at University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff, UK, has been suspended for eight months after admitting to having a sexual relationship with a vulnerable female patient and prescribing her addictive painkillers.
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The tribunal heard that Dr. Patel first operated on the woman referred to as Patient A to remove a damaged disc in her spine. He began a sexual relationship with her in 2019 after performing another surgery that same year. By February 2023, the relationship had deteriorated, and Patient A reported the surgeon to police, who then notified Cardiff and Vale health board.
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Dr. Patel admitted to the sexual relationship, sending the patient explicit images, and prescribing her drugs including the addictive muscle relaxant Diazepam and an opioid painkiller called MST until January 2023. He also operated on her a third time in 2023, inserting a spinal cord stimulator four years after the initial surgeries.
The panel concluded Dr. Patel showed “a reckless disregard for patient safety,” continuing prescriptions even after she missed appointments and failing to inform her GP or record the prescriptions in her medical notes.
Tribunal chair Remi Alabi said the surgeon put his personal interestssecuring his career, reputation and family relationshipsabove Patient A’s proper care by not ending the relationship.
Despite being told Dr. Patel was the only surgeon in NHS Wales able to perform certain neuropathic pain surgeries, the panel suspended him for eight months to “protect the public from the risks posed by [his] misconduct.”
Dr. Patel claimed he was going through marital difficulties when the relationship began. He told the tribunal: “When I persisted in telling her that the relationship had to end, Patient A threatened to reveal our relationship to others, such as my employer and colleagues. I was afraid if she did so, I could lose the job I so loved and had worked so hard to obtain.”
He added: “With the benefit of hindsight, I know I should nonetheless have ended the relationship and been honest with my employer. However, at the time I felt panicked and unable to break it off a decision I now bitterly regret.”
The panel concluded Patient A was vulnerable and her repeated requests for painkillers may have resulted from addiction. A voicemail from the patient played at the tribunal showed her demanding the prescription and threatening to report him, saying: “Chirag, you had one chance, two chance, three chances, and more chances… I don’t want to f*** you over but my spine is f***ed, right? I’ve given you chance after chance after chance.”
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