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Nurse who ran slimming clinics struck off for catalogue of errors

Regulator’s Fitness to Practise panel finds numerous lapses including failure to calibrate scales and not keeping proper patient records
Brass nameplate on NMC building

Regulator’s Fitness to Practise panel finds numerous lapses including failure to calibrate scales and not keeping proper patient records

Brass nameplate on NMC building
Picture: Barney Newman

A nurse has been struck off for a catalogue of errors while running slimming clinics, including failing to calibrate scales that were used to monitor patients’ weight.

Registered nurse Hassen Jeetoo also failed to calibrate blood pressure monitors and did not keep proper patient records, according to a ruling by a Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) fitness to practise (FtP) panel.

Mr Jeetoo was the manager of Medical Slimming Clinic Ltd, with branches in Doncaster and Rotherham, between 2011 and 2017. Failure to calibrate the scales and blood pressure monitors was in breach of Care Quality Commission (CQC) regulations and meant measurements recorded during consultations may not have been accurate.

Two sets of scales showed a difference of 1.8kg

The FtP panel heard how a CQC report from July 2017 found two sets of weighing scales in the clinics, of which one was new but the other had been calibrated in February 2017. The CQC report said: ‘We tested them on the day of the inspection and they weighed differently by 1.8kg.’

A doctor working at the clinic told inspectors Mr Jeetoo was aware of this but the scales were still used to weigh patients and their treatment records did not say which of the scales had been used.

The panel also heard that some patients were given medicines to suppress their appetites. This was despite patients not having a body mass index (BMI) considered to be obese. The NMC said this was not in line with national guidance or with the clinic’s product license.

Patients’ medical histories were not always fully completed

It said patients’ medical histories were not always fully completed and their weight, BMI, blood pressure and allergies were not always recorded.

There was also a discrepancy in what Mr Jeetoo told CQC inspectors about infection control. He told the inspectors in 2016 that the Doncaster clinic was cleaned twice a week and in 2017 told inspectors the Rotherham clinic was cleaned weekly, but both claims were found to be incorrect.

Neither of the clinics were found to have any infection policies in place and inspectors found no sterile gloves or alcohol hand gel in the Doncaster clinic in 2016. In the same year, a repeat inspection found latex gloves labelled ‘not for medical use’ in the clinic room.

Despite receiving several warning notices, Mr Jeetoo did not appear to have taken any steps to address inspectors’ concerns, the panel heard. He did not attend any NMC hearings and indicated he was ‘not interested’ in nursing any more, the NMC said.

Mr Jeetoo had 47 charges brought against him. Within those charges, the panel decided that 124 allegations were proved, 20 were not proved and on four allegations there was no case to answer. It decided to strike Mr Jeetoo off the register. He has 28 days to appeal the decision.


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