Yahoo News Gynaecologist hauled before courts after causing 'severe harm and emotional distress'
A gynaecologist who ‘risked people’s safety’ has been hauled before court and sentenced after performing a procedure that caused ‘severe emotional harm and physical distress’ – all while unregistered with the healthcare watchdog.
Dr Fakher Fouad Gendy, trading as FEM-Aesthetics, was sentenced at Warrington Magistrates Court on May 16 on a charge of providing regulated activities without being registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to do so. Dr Gendy, aged 74, carried out a labiaplasty on June 10, 2023, under his company name FEM-Aesthetics.
Last month, the Manchester Evening News reported how Dr Gendy was suspended from practising medicine. The doctor left a new mother ‘feeling like a cow’ during a delivery of her baby that shocked his fellow doctors and midwives.
‘Neither Dr Gendy or FEM-Aesthetics were registered with CQC to undertake any regulated activities including surgical procedures. The patient upon whom Dr Gendy performed this procedure as an unregistered provider, has been caused severe emotional harm and physical distress’, said the CQC of last week's sentencing.
This is a criminal offence under section 10 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008, the CQC has said. Dr Gendy, the director of the the gynaecology service, was sentenced to 16 weeks imprisonment, suspended for 12 months, and and ordered to complete 200 hours of unpaid work within this timeframe. He was also ordered to pay £5,000 costs and £154 victim surcharge.
According to the NHS, a labiaplasty is surgery to reduce the size of the labia minora either side of the vaginal opening. FEM-Aesthetics declined to comment after repeated approaches from the Manchester Evening News.
The group's website says it provides 'aesthetic gynaecology' and its 'clinics are in Greater Manchester, the Midlands, London, Brighton and Newcastle'.
Ceri Morris-Williams, the interim deputy director of transition – national operations and enforcement at the CQC, said: “I hope this outcome sends a clear message to others that where we find providers operating outside of the law, we will always use our enforcement powers to protect people and hold them to account to stop poor and illegal practice.
“It is unacceptable that Dr Gendy trading as FEM-Aesthetics risked people’s safety by running a service without the benefit of CQC registration, so I welcome Dr Gendy's guilty plea to this offence.
“The registration process is important to appropriately assess services before they care for people. Services are then monitored and inspected to ensure that they continue to meet fundamental standards of care that everyone should be able to expect. Un-registered services operate without oversight, putting people at risk of harm.
“When we find individuals operating unlawfully, we won’t hesitate to act to protect people, as we did in this case.”
'In that moment I felt like a cow'
Dr Gendy was suspended last month after he was found guilty of serious misconduct during two deliveries. A tribunal hearing heard how one new mother lost almost five pints of blood and another was left feeling like a 'cow giving birth to a calf' during the deliveries of their babies.
The consultant was said to have 'frozen in panic' and behaved like a 'rabbit caught in the headlights' after one of the women suddenly began bleeding heavily whilst being prepared for a caesarean section.
Dr Gendy, who qualified 50 years ago, wrote notes in a book before he left the theatre to call a colleague for advice. When he eventually returned, he said 'I didn't expect this' as colleagues intervened. The unnamed mum recovered after undergoing a blood transfusion.
In the other delivery, a newborn baby was left with bruises to their neck after Dr Gendy was too 'forceful' with the patient after the baby had become stuck during delivery. A paediatrician described it as the 'roughest delivery I have ever witnessed’.
A midwife said of the incident: "It seemed to me that Dr Gendy was pulling at the baby’s head and neck because he did not know what else to do. It was as if he did not know the appropriate management for shoulder dystocia.
''It felt like Dr Gendy used excessive force because he did not know what to do next."
The mother said: "I remember feeling like the doctor’s entire arm was inside me. I have grown up in the countryside and watched many calves being born - in that moment I felt like a cow.''
Following a Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service hearing, held in Manchester, Dr Gendy, from Lymm, Cheshire, was suspended from medical practice for nine months after he was found guilty of serious professional misconduct. The panel rejected his pleas for voluntary erasure.
The hearing heard both incidents happened while Dr Gendy was working at the Northern Devon Healthcare NHS Trust between 2020 and 2021.
