Worked to death: NHS dentist takes his own life 'after health bosses threatened to strike him off because he couldn't keep up with paperwork for 10,000 patients'
- Dr Anand Kamath was investigated over minor record keeping problems
- His wife and fellow dentist Dr Rajni Prasad accused health chiefs of driving her husband to suicide
- Dr Prasad said they felt 'very vulnerable and harassed and bullied' by Trust
PUBLISHED:12:50 GMT, 11 August 2013| UPDATED:00:12 GMT, 12 August 2013
An NHS dentist who was so hardworking he never refused a patient was driven to suicide when health chiefs threatened to strike him off over his record-keeping.
Dr Anand Kamath, 42, was the only NHS dentist in his area and took on as many people as he could so they would not have to pay to go private.
But the father-of-three became the subject of an investigation when NHS officials criticised his record-keeping, which had suffered due to his 10,000-strong list of patients.
Dr Anand Kamath (right) had 10,000 patients on his books but was threatened with being struck off because of minor record keeping errors. His wife Dr Rajni Prasad (left) accused health chiefs of driving her husband to suicide
His widow told an inquest he felt ‘bullied and harassed’ after being summoned for a meeting and sent a letter warning he could be reported to the General Dental Council. Now the British Dental Association has called on the NHS to hold an inquiry into his death.
His wife Dr Rajni Prasad, a dentist who worked alongside him, wept yesterday as she said over-zealous health officials had driven him to his death.
‘It was just too much. They behaved like bullies and drove a loyal NHS servant over the edge,’ she said.
‘He just couldn’t take the anxiety. He wasn’t eating or sleeping after the meeting. When the letter came that was the final straw. He gave everything to the NHS. He worried about losing everything if they stopped us practising.’
She added: ‘His reward for caring for thousands of patients no other practice would take was to be threatened with the most severe disciplinary action over administrative matters which we agreed straightaway needed improvement.’
The inquest in Wakefield, Yorkshire, heard last week how Dr Kamath and his wife, 42, had worked for the NHS in Leeds for ten years.
The pair tried to take on as many patients as possible, giving them a list four times the length of the average practice. For the first four years at Rothwell Dental Surgery Dr Kamath did not take a holiday and rarely took a lunchbreak. At one point, the centre was treating up to 50 people a day.
Dr Prasad said her husband was a servant to NHS
The couple were on a modest contract and could have earned tens of thousands more treating private patients.
But after two minor complaints, the primary care trust conducted an audit which led to an investigation into record-keeping. The pair were called to a meeting in December where trust officials threatened to report them to the General Dental Council.
Two days later a letter arrived from the same managers warning of action to suspend them from the list of NHS-approved dentists.
Soon afterwards, Dr Kamath’s wife found him dead at their home in Pudsey near Leeds.
She told the inquest: ‘We were both very stressed and felt vulnerable, harassed and bullied with no support offered.’ Wakefield coroner David Hinchliff recorded a verdict of suicide and said unreasonable pressure exerted on Dr Kamath by the trust‘pushed a good man over the edge’.
Dr Prasad said: ‘I told my children dad died after a fall. How could I tell them the awful truth?’
An NHS England spokesman said: ‘We are happy that the investigation that was being undertaken at this practice was following National Clinical Assessment service advice.’AN NHS dentist who was so hardworking he never refused a patient was driven to suicide when health chiefs threatened to strike him off over his record-keeping.
Dr Anand Kamath, 42, was the only NHS dentist in his area and took on as many people as he could so they would not have to pay to go private.
But the father-of-three became the subject of an investigation when NHS officials criticised his record-keeping, which had suffered due to his 10,000-strong list of patients.
His widow told an inquest he felt ‘bullied and harassed’ after being summoned for a meeting and sent a letter warning he could be reported to the General Dental Council. Now the British Dental Association has called on the NHS to hold an inquiry into his death.
His wife Dr Rajni Prasad, a dentist who worked alongside him, wept yesterday as she said over-zealous health officials had driven him to his death.
‘It was just too much. They behaved like bullies and drove a loyal NHS servant over the edge,’ she said.
‘He just couldn’t take the anxiety. He wasn’t eating or sleeping after the meeting. When the letter came that was the final straw. He gave everything to the NHS. He worried about losing everything if they stopped us practising.’
She added: ‘His reward for caring for thousands of patients no other practice would take was to be threatened with the most severe disciplinary action over administrative matters which we agreed straightaway needed improvement.’
The couple fell behind in their record keeping because of the huge number of patients they saw daily (file picture)
The inquest in Wakefield, Yorkshire, heard last week how Dr Kamath and his wife, 42, had worked for the NHS in Leeds for ten years.
The pair tried to take on as many patients as possible, giving them a list four times the length of the average practice. For the first four years at Rothwell Dental Surgery Dr Kamath did not take a holiday and rarely took a lunchbreak. At one point, the centre was treating up to 50 people a day.
The couple were on a modest contract and could have earned tens of thousands more treating private patients.
But after two minor complaints, the primary care trust conducted an audit which led to an investigation into record-keeping. The pair were called to a meeting in December where trust officials threatened to report them to the General Dental Council.
Two days later a letter arrived from the same managers warning of action to suspend them from the list of NHS-approved dentists.
Soon afterwards, Dr Kamath’s wife found him dead at their home in Pudsey near Leeds.
She told the inquest: ‘We were both very stressed and felt vulnerable, harassed and bullied with no support offered.’ Wakefield coroner David Hinchliff recorded a verdict of suicide and said unreasonable pressure exerted on Dr Kamath by the trust‘pushed a good man over the edge’.
Dr Prasad said: ‘I told my children dad died after a fall. How could I tell them the awful truth?’
An NHS England spokesman said: ‘We are happy that the investigation that was being undertaken at this practice was following National Clinical Assessment service advice.’
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The General Dental Council (GDC) has recently been criticised for its failure to deal with serious complaints promptly, the BBC reports. The General Dental ...
