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A GP has been struck off the medical register after establishing an unregistered clinic, and charging cancer patients £15,000 to "cure" them with garlic oil injections.
Dr Mohsen Ali, who was registered for 11 years, promised a 90 per cent cure rate from a “squalid and unsanitary” room in his council house. He assured one patient that their cancer was “so easy to cure” he would offer a refund if unsuccessful.
Dr Ali also told patients that the NHS was “trying to kill them” and hospitals “only wanted their money”.
Police, investigating a report, found non-sterilised containers in a Halford's box and a “decaying” mattress in his garden.
A tribunal has now removed him for a “fundamental breach of the tenets of the profession”.
Dr Ali qualified from Cairo University in 1994 and began working in the UK in 2001. He held a full licence from 2004 until it was withdrawn in January 2015.
open image in gallery Dr Mohsen Ali told both patients that he could cure their cancer ( Getty/iStock )
Between January and September 2018, Dr Ali consulted with and treated two patients who had cancer.
Both the patients, one of whom was terminally ill, had been recommended to him as a doctor who could help treat cancer.
He informed both patients that he could cure their cancer and charged one patient £15,000 and the other between £10,000-£12,000 for his services, according to the tribunal.
He had advertised himself as a doctor with GP experience, claiming to aim to achieve a 90 per cent cure rate for cancers and other illnesses.
His flyer said: "In the name of Allah the best healer we aim to achieve over 90 per cent cure rate in the most challenging illnesses e.g. Cancer (Malignant Tumours)."
One patient, identified only as Patient A by the tribunal, had stage three prostate cancer and was told that “your cancer can be easily cured”.
A number of specialists had previously told him that surgery was the most effective option but he was “desperate” to find an alternative due to the potential side effects.
When they first spoke on the phone, Dr Ali laughed and said that prostate cancer was so easy to cure that he would give him his money back if he did not cure him, according to the tribunal.
He later advised him not to listen to the doctors in the NHS hospital, claiming they were “just trying to make money” from chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
It was later found that he would have been aware of the lack of evidence supporting his treatment for cancer.
During his treatment of Patient A, he said that he would inject him with fluids but refused to say what was in them, other than Vitamin C and garlic oil.
He was found to be “evasive” when asked about the ingredients.
The treatment sessions were held at Dr Ali's semi-detached council house and would sometimes include ozone therapy, a controversial form of alternative medicine.
One of the patients said that when he removed the cannula, blood would spurt out and could have easily gone on other people in the room.
Some of the liquids used during treatments were not stored in sterile conditions, with some found in plastic containers in a Halfords box.
An “old, decaying” mattress could be seen in the garden and there were no separate kitchen or toilet facilities for the patients.
An expert described the house as “squalid, unprofessional, unhygienic, neglected and highly inappropriate premises shared with a household living upstairs”.
Dr Ali’s other patient, known as Patient B, died shortly after her treatment with him in 2018. Her husband was interviewed and said that his wife had been diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2015.
She had undergone surgery and treatment with the NHS but when the cancer returned in January 2018 she was told that there was nothing more they could do, leading to her turning to Dr Ali.
open image in gallery Patient B was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2015, according to her husband ( PA )
Dr Ali had said that instead of curing people the NHS was killing them and that he would be able to treat the terminal cancer.
He took payment of between £10,000-£12,000 from her, which her husband later realised was done under a “false pretence”.
He later administered substances to her that included Vitamin C, oxygenated water, ozone treatment and sodium bicarbonate.
One of his patients raised a concern with the General Medical Council in June 2019 and a crime report was made by Leicestershire Police a month later.
When interviewed, Dr Ali acknowledged that he was not registered but said that he did not need to be as all his work was therapeutic.
He said he does a “herbal natural treatment”, cupping, and faith Quaran healing.
Dr Ali did not attend the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) hearing where Patient A said he was 'very angry' by the way he had been treated.
Dr Ali was struck off by the MPTS due to his “high and ongoing risk to public protection”.
Nessa Sharkett, chair of the MPTS, said: "The Tribunal determined that Dr Ali poses a high and ongoing risk to public protection and that his fitness to practise if therefore currently impaired by reason of misconduct.
"The Tribunal was satisfied that Dr Ali poses a continuing risk to the health, safety and wellbeing of the public.
"The Tribunal found that he misled vulnerable cancer patients into paying substantial sums for non-evidenced based treatment, practised without a licence, used unsafe and unhygienic premises, failed to obtain informed consent, failed to provide adequate information about treatment, risks and side effects, failed to keep adequate records and in Patient A's case caused delay in obtaining appropriate evidence-based treatment.
"He exploited the trust inherent in his position as a registered doctor, falsely advertised cancer cure claims, misled patients about his licence status and about treatment and used his professional standing to obtain money from vulnerable patients.
"Dr Ali breached fundamental tenets of the profession, including honesty, integrity, patient-centred care, informed consent, safe prescribing and administration, clear record keeping and maintaining trust.
"The most serious sanction was necessary in this case as the only appropriate and proportionate sanction capable of fulfilling the need to protect the public and the wider public interest."