Kevan Jones, Member of Parliament for North Durham has welcomed the decision of the Medical Practitioner’s Tribunals Service to erase Italian surgeon Dr Paganelli from the General Medical Council’s medical register for misconduct, which prevents him from practising in the UK.
Dawn Knight visited Kevan’s advice surgery in Stanley in 2014 to discuss her case, after she was unable to secure redress for an operation on her eyes that had left her unable to close her eyes properly and having to administer eye drops every two hours.
The case highlighted that cosmetic surgeons require no formal qualification above that of a GP in order to be able to carryout cosmetic operations. In this case the operation had gone wrong and it later came to light that the surgeon did not have adequate insurance in place.
Kevan said:
“This case raises serious questions about the effectiveness of the GMC’s Medical Register and why it has taken 5 years for this individual to be barred from practising in the UK.
“The Government has promised to bring forward legislation to regulate cosmetic surgery and this case is one of many which highlights the need for urgent action.
“Without legislation, patients will continue to be left at risk of serious harm from what is a largely unregulated multi-million pound industry.
“I have a huge amount of respect for Dawn and her tenacity in campaigning on this issue to prevent others from suffering in similar circumstances. I welcome the outcome of the Tribunal and I know that most people would agree with the Tribunal’s finding that the surgeon’s behaviour was ‘thoroughly reprehensible’.”
The decision of the MPTS can be viewed online here.