A doctor who gave multiple sclerosis patients “pointless” injections of a substance containing stem cells should be struck off, a fitness to practise hearing has been told.
The General Medical Council’s Tom Kark said that patients’ desperation for a remedy was exploited by Robert Trossel, leaving them with a feeling of “anger and a sense of being let down” due to the “mirage” of treatment.
Dr Trossel, 56, has not refunded any of the people for the thousands of pounds they paid to his clinic in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Between August 2004 and August 2006 he injected five MS patients with the stem cells, treatment described as medically unjustifiable, “inappropriate” and exploitative of people who were in a vulnerable state.
Dr Trossel had advised two of these patients and another person with MS to have treatment called Aqua Tilis therapy, described as involving a steam room with an MRI machine. The fitness to practise panel concluded that this also was unjustifiable and exploitative.
The panel has already ruled that Dr Trossel carried out “repeated and serious” breaches of “essential tenets” of good practice.
Defending, Robert Jay, QC, said that the doctor was a “genuine and compassionate” medical practitioner, adding that the GMC did not find dishonesty in his case.
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