Medical Council panel wants 'free GP' struck off

The committee that prosecuted a Hamilton doctor for enrolling more than 40 patients without their knowledge wants him struck off the medical register.

Among those improperly enrolled were four dead people.

In a verdict made public this week, Suresh Kumar Vatsyayann was found guilty of professional misconduct over the enrolment irregularities and other matters by the Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal.

The charge was brought by a Medical Council professional conduct committee.

The committee's lawyer, Michael Heron, said yesterday that he had asked the tribunal to order Dr Vatsyayann's name be struck off the council's register of medical practitioners.

The tribunal will hold a hearing this month in Hamilton to decide what penalty to impose.

The professional misconduct finding is the tribunal's second against Dr Vatsyayann.

The first was in 2008, for producing false and misleading clinical notes. He was fined, censured and ordered to pay part of the prosecution costs.

Next month, a new five-member tribunal panel will hear a fresh charge against Dr Vatsyayann, involving an alleged failure to properly investigate the symptoms of a woman who was later found to have bowel cancer.

Dr Vatsyayann, known as the "free GP" because he treated patients without charge, has been prevented from practising since last August, when the council suspended his annual practising certificate, considering he posed a risk of harm to the public.

In October, it refused to issue a new certificate when the old one had expired.

But despite complaints against him, the doctor, who was elected to the Waikato District Health Board in 2007 and suspended by the brd's chairman in 2009 after he accused it of racism, has retained a following in the city.

About 40 people were reported to have attended a rally in August calling for his reinstatement after the council suspended his practising certificate.