G20 pathologist Patel suspended

2011-03-31 15:02:55

31 March 2011 Last updated at 12:17 Share this page Delicious Digg Facebook reddit StumbleUpon Twitter Email Print G20 pathologist Freddy Patel suspended The General Medical Council suspended Dr Patel for four months Continue reading the main story Related Stories Inquest under way into G20 death G20 doctor's fitness 'impaired' Pathologist guilty of misconduct

Pathologist Dr Freddy Patel has been suspended for four months by the General Medical Council.

The allegations upheld related to his post-mortem examination of murder victim Sally White, who was murdered by Anthony Hardy in north London in 2002.

The GMC also said Dr Patel had been deliberately dishonest when making claims on his CV.

Dr Patel was previously criticised for his post-mortem examination of Ian Tomlinson who died at the G20 protests.

The GMC had earlier ruled his fitness to practise was impaired having been found guilty of gross professional misconduct.

Bite marks

In a post-mortem examination on Ms White, Dr Patel said injuries, including gashes to her liver and bite marks, could all have come from natural causes and there were no signs she was assaulted.

But the GMC said he had not considered all of the available evidence and failed to weigh up other likely reasons for her death.

The panel said Dr Patel had an "inflexible approach" to his autopsy conclusions and gave "superficial" consideration to the possibility she was asphyxiated.

This fell "below the standard expected for a competent forensic pathologist", the panel added.

The GMC panel said Dr Patel had been deliberately dishonest in claims made on his CV and had not given truthful evidence to an earlier panel hearing.

It said this was against the "fundamental tenets" of good medical practice.

Dr Patel conducted the original post-mortem examination on Ian Tomlinson but his suspension is nothing to do with this.

He concluded Mr Tomlinson died from heart disease but this finding was contradicted by another post-mortem examination which blamed abdominal bleeding.

An inquest into Mr Tomlinson's death is currently under way.

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