A top neurosurgeon has been suspended after a medical tribunal found he had a sexual relationship with a vulnerable female patient and repeatedly prescribed her addictive painkillers without proper records or safeguards.
Chirag Patel, a consultant at the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff, was handed an eight-month suspension after admitting to the relationship and sending the patient explicit images, as well as prescribing controlled drugs including diazepam and opioid-based medication. Patel first treated the woman, referred to as Patient A, in February 2019 when he carried out surgery to remove damaged spinal disc tissue. He later operated on her again in August 2019 and December 2021, and inserted a spinal cord stimulator in a third procedure.
