Former chief executive says he is relieved 'terrible ordeal' is over (From This Is Local London)

Former chief executive says he is relieved 'terrible ordeal' is over

11:46am Friday 8th July 2005 in

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RELATIVES of elderly people who were mistreated at the Twickenham Lynde House care home said they are shocked and disappointed after its former chief executive was cleared of serious professional misconduct.

Dr Chai Patel, former chief of Westminster Healthcare was cleared of all charges at a hearing of the General Medical Council last Thursday, without any evidence being heard.

Dr Patel said he was relieved that his 'terrible ordeal' was over and that the charges had not been supported by any admissible evidence.

The case involved 11 complainants whose friends and relatives were patients at the Cambridge Park nursing home between 1999 and 2002. They have been fighting for answers and justice for five years.

Dr Patel faced 20 heads of charge at the GMC at the beginning of the year but after three weeks of legal wrangles no evidence was opened.

Dr Patel's counsel then took the case to judicial review. It was returned to the GMC on June 30 with several heads of charge and amendments struck out and the case was wound up without presentation of any evidence.

The verdict was met by a slow handclap from relatives who then staged a silent protest outside the building.

"He was found not guilty without a jot of evidence being heard," said Auriol Walters, whose mother, Irene Smith lived at the home.

"It was Pyrrhic victory. It is hard to understand how the charges, formulated by two QCs and a legal team who have worked for the GMC for 100 years and then submitted to the GMC itself for approval could have turned out to be inadmissible," she added.

Relatives fear that there is no redress for privately funded patients who have no status under the Human Rights Act.

In a statement released after the hearing Dr Patel said: "Whilst I stand here today completely exonerated, the cost of these proceedings has been enormous in many ways: Most of all to my reputation as a good person which has been under a cloud all this time, but also in personal time, in angst, and in financial terms. My reputation has been attacked by those all too willing to assume that because these proceedings were happening I must therefore be guilty."

Dr Patel also criticised the GMC saying that it seemed that it was insufficiently standing up for doctors, saying they had to face some serious questions on the governance and morale of the profession.

"I am also today able to say that there must be an end to the ill-informed comments from the so-called Lynde House Relatives Support Group, the lead spokesperson for whom has no personal connections to the home. Those who have said such untrue and hurtful comments about me over recent years need to adjust their tone and stop.

"The GMC has spoken and I will no longer put up with unfounded criticism. More attention should be paid to the True Friends of Lynde House," he added.