Consultant accused of ‘financial abuse of terminally ill patient’

Oncologist Kamalnayan Gupta sought an interim injunction at the High Court after Northampton General Hospital Trust excluded him from work on full pay. The injunction would have “requir[ed] the [trust] to reinstate him and prohibit[ed] the [trust] from contacting or sharing information with [Dr Gupta]’s private work providers or other employer”, according to the High Court judgment published last week.

The judgment said the trust had been investigating allegations about Dr Gupta concerning “irregularities around payments for additional hours, the abuse of position to procure private patients from his NHS practice and conducting private work during paid NHS time”.

High Court judge Mrs Justice Yip stressed that, at this stage, “the allegations are just that” and Dr Gupta “vigorously denies any wrongdoing”. 

The judgement continued: “To put it bluntly, the allegation is of financial abuse of a terminally ill patient [referred to in the judgment as GG].”

The court document said concerns about Dr Gupta — who has been employed by Northampton General Hospital Trust since 2018 and also carries out private work — had first been raised in 2020. Then, in December 2020, a nurse at the trust had a discussion with GG’s wife “during which concerns emerged that the claimant was billing the patient privately for short, weekly telephone calls”. 

These additional concerns prompted the trust to start “an investigation under the medical staff concerns policy”. The trust notified Dr Gupta of its investigation in January 2021. He was then suspended in March 2021, as there was “concern that [he] may present a risk of financial abuse to vulnerable patients”. 

Northampton General Hospital Trust’s medical director then went on to notify private firms which Dr Gupta worked with that he had been suspended. The evidence presented to the court noted the governance arguments for doing so had been “strengthened following the Paterson [i]nquiry”. 

The judgment noted GG and his family were billed more than £20,000 in total for Dr Gupta’s time, including telephone calls which were made when GG “was on an end of life pathway and when palliative care and support would have been readily available via the NHS”. It added there was evidence to suggest Dr Gupta had contacted GG’s wife to ask if the family had made a complaint against him shortly before GG died, which “caused upset to the family”. 

The court document also said Dr Gupta was being investigated over claims he had received payments for additional duty hours which had not been properly authorised. The judgment said: “From January to September 2020, [Dr Gupta] had received payments totalling an estimated £80,000. This was referred to the Local Counter Fraud Services for investigation, with a view to the possibility of criminal proceedings, and the trust agreed to refrain from undertaking its own investigation whilst the fraud investigation was completed.”

The judgment added the counter-fraud investigation, which continues to run alongside but independently of the trust’s internal investigation, has also discovered two other patients may have been invoiced for private care while being treated on the NHS.

A Northampton General Hospital Trust spokesperson said the trust was unable to comment as the investigation was ongoing.