Undue mental pressure can emotionally strangle a person to suicide! This is exactly what happened in Yorkshire. Reports say that The National Health Service”bullied and harassed” a British Indian dentist to commit suicide. The authority promised to take action due to lack of record keeping at his clinic.
Doctor commits suicide
An inquest heard that 42 year old, Dr Anand Kamath who was running the Rothwell Dental Surgery, along with his wife and another dentist Dr Rajni Prasad in Leeds, was facing a probe of the National Health Service (NHS). He was being pressurized regarding the patient records kept at his clinic.
A threat of being reported to the General Dental Counsil ,issued by the NHS ,” bullied and harassed” Kamath enough to put an end to his own life. Talking about the father of three children and her husband, Kamath’s wife commented “They behaved like bullies and drove a loyal NHS servant over the edge. He just couldn’t take the anxiety.”
Statement by the Doctor’s wife
She sadly claimed “When the letter came, that was the final straw. He gave everything to the NHS. 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 dailies report that Kamath and his wife took charge of the NHS patients in Leeds and had been doing so for the last 10 years. The couple had been reported to have extended dental treatment to a whopping 10,000 patients as the patients could not afford the private dental treatment that is exorbitantly expensive. This number of patients is nearly four times more than an average practice and the doctor couple did this as there was a non availability of any Government backed NHS dentist in the area.
Because of this hectic work schedule Dr. Kamath neglected his record keeping. Last year in December, The distraught wife discovered her husband dead with his wrists slit in their Pudsey Home.
An inquiry
Wakefield coroner David Hinchliff has recorded a verdict of the sad incident and said ,”There had been a complaint and an investigation, not about his ability as a dentist, but in relation to recordkeeping which had put him and his wife under an intolerable strain.”
“It seems he was in grave danger of being removed from the list of practitioners which would have ended his career. It appears all of this just became too much and he had taken action to end his own life.”
A further inquiry has been initiated into the circumstances of the Kamath suicide by the
The British Dental Association.
Hearing about this an NHS England spokesperson was heard commenting “We are happy that the investigation into Dr Kamath being undertaken was following National Clinical Assessment service advice. Safety and quality of service is our priority and so we will always investigate when complaints are received. This can be stressful for some but we try to work with providers to ensure the process runs smoothly.”
