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Slimming doctor 'doled out addictive pills like smarties'
Last updated at 15:52pm on 09.01.07A slimming clinic doctor doled out pills to his patients "as if they were Smarties", the General Medical Council has heard.
Dr Imon Bondyopadhyay prescribed large quantities of highly addictive medication, including Diazepam and Nitrazepam, to a woman suffering from depression who was later found dead, the hearing in central London was told.
The doctor also allegedly supplied a man who had undergone a heart bypass with an appetite suppressant that should not have been given to someone with heart problems.
Dr Bondyopadhyay is also accused of indecently "tweaking the nipples" of a female patient who came to him complaining of feeling run down.
The doctor denies all the charges against him.
Dr Bondyopadhyay and his wife, Rita Banerji, had run the London West Slimming Clinic in Townsend Road, Southall, west London, since at least 2000, the GMC's fitness to practise panel heard.
From 2000 Dr Bondyopadhyay prescribed medication to a female patient, referred to as Ms A, who was suffering from depression after an illness meant she could no longer work as an intensive care nurse.
Tom Kark, counsel for the GMC, said Ms A spent "in the region of £100 a week" on drugs supplied by the doctor, including Diazepam, Temazepam, Lorazepam and Nitrazepam.
Ms A's regular GP had no idea she was receiving these drugs, the panel was told.
On February 24, 2004, Ms A was found dead at her home in Brentford, west London.
A post-mortem examination found her bloodstream contained about four times the legal drink drive limit of alcohol and "therapeutic amounts" of Lorazepam and Diazepam.
Police launched an investigation into the death and at an inquest the coroner recorded a verdict of misadventure.
Mr Kark said the medication supplied to Ms A was "pharmacologically and psychologically highly addictive" and should only have been prescribed for short-term use.
He added: "Dr Bondyopadhyay was doling out pills as if they were Smarties, with little or no regard for the consequences of his actions."
Dr Bondyopadhyay also provided an overweight man, referred to as Mr B, with the appetite suppressant Phentermine despite knowing he had heart problems and diabetes, the hearing was told.
He also prescribed Phentermine and a drug called Tenuate to Mr B's wife and continued to supply them even when the licences for both medications were temporarily withdrawn, Mr Kark alleged.
Dr Bondyopadhyay was working as a locum GP at the Smallthorne Health Centre in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffs, when he allegedly indecently assaulted a female patient, referred to as Ms C on January 16, 2004.
He told Ms C he wanted to listen to her chest, then attempted to take off her bra before "feeling around her chest area" and "tweaking her nipples", the panel heard.
