THE head of Britain’s most famous alcohol and drug rehabilitation clinics could be struck off as a doctor over allegations that he ran a care home company which mistreated elderly patients.
Chaitanya Patel, head of the Priory chain of health clinics and a former health adviser to the Government, is to appear before the General Medical Council charged with professional misconduct.
Dr Patel is accused of failing properly to investigate patient mistreatment and neglect in December 2000 at Lynde House, a care home in Twickenham owned by Westminster Health Care, a company that he headed at the time.
The complaints, which included allegations that Lynde House was understaffed and underequipped and that some patients had unexplained bruising and were sometimes not washed for weeks, were upheld in September 2002 by the McLaren Consultancy, an independent investigator.
The McLaren report forced Dr Patel, 49, to give up his role as an adviser to the National Health Service’s Task Force for Older People and his position on the board of Help The Aged.
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Dr Patel, who was educated at Southampton University and was made a Fellow of Pembroke College, Oxford, is an opera, golf and photography enthusiast who is married with two children. He said: “I am looking forward to clearing my name since I do not believe any claims that my behaviour amounts to professional misconduct.”
Dr Patel, who made about £8 million two years ago when Westminster Health Care was sold for £288 million, added: “The problem is that the (McLaren) report is a very poor, unfair, report.”
He said that the Commission for Social Care Inspection (formerly the National Care Standards Commission) had carried out several unannounced site reports at about the time of the allegations and none had substantiated the report’s claims. Mary McLaren, the report’s author, declined to comment on the case.
Of the 4,000 complaints the General Medical Council (GMC) received last year, 128, or 3 per cent, went to a professional misconduct hearing.
Of the 128 cases heard, 43 people were found innocent, while 29 people were struck off the medical register and a further 21 suspended.
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A spokesman for Westminster Health Care said: “We accept that there were failings but we don’t agree that Lynde House is a bad home or that it had major failings.”
“The (McLaren) report upholds the complaints, but in our view it didn’t look in enough detail at the actual complaints to decide whether they were justified.”
Auriol Walters, a member of the 11-person Lynde House Relatives Support Group, said: “We’re not talking about a small thing here, but about really serious negligence.
“My own mother, for example, went three months without being bathed, was left in her own urine overnight and was deprived of water.”
Dr Patel owns an 8 per cent stake in the Priory, which is controlled by Doughty Hanson, a venture capital firm which also owns RHM, the company behind Mr Kipling cakes and Hovis bread, as well as a stake in Umbro, the England football kit maker. Doughty Hanson declined to comment.
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However, other venture capitalists with experience in the healthcare sector said that Dr Patel’s days as a chief executive would almost certainly be numbered if he were to be struck off the register or even severely reprimanded.
One venture capitalist said: “I would be mortified if I were the owner of the Priory and Dr Patel was found guilty. If the company is all about good healthcare and the guy who runs it loses his licence to deliver good healthcare, you just can’t have that.”
The GMC hearing is not a civil or criminal trial. Even though Dr Patel has not practised medicine since 1985 he could still have his licence to practise withdrawn or suspended if he were found to have acted inappropriately as a manager.
Dr Patel, who donated £5,000 to the Labour Party in 1999, is secretary of the Institute for Public Policy Research, the left-wing think-tank.
He will appear before a General Medical Council Professional Conduct Committee on January 31. In a case scheduled to last 30 days, Dr Patel, who was appointed CBE in 1999 for services to social care policies, could, if found guilty, face the prospect of a public reprimand, suspension from the doctors register, or a complete ban from practice.
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The Priory clinics have over the years been visited by numerous celebrities, most recently by Pete Doherty, the singer of The Libertines pop group.
Other famous clients have included George Best, Robbie Williams, Caroline Aherne, the creator of Mrs Merton and The Royle Family, Michael Barrymore and Paula Yates.