A DOCTOR in Burnley has been accused of delaying a patient’s prostate cancer diagnosis and then claiming he was acting on the telephone advice of a hospital registrar.

But the consultant, urology specialist Dr Khalid Mohammed, has insisted he never spoke with Dr Zakir Hussain Khan about the 61-year-old’s condition, a Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service hearing in Manchester was told.

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And an independent expert claimed Dr Khan, a senior partner at the town’s Colne Road surgery, should have recognised the warning signs which saw the patient diagnosed later with metastatic prostate cancer.

The tribunal was told the patient was only diagnosed after returning to Burnley General Hospital as an emergency case, suffering from water retention, despite previously undergoing several consultations with Dr Khan in February, March and April 2014.

Dr Khan is facing six misconduct charges at a fitness to practice hearing.

He accepts that he failed to ask the man, referred to only as Patient A, to return to the surgery for a rectal examination and an appropriate blood test in a timely fashion, during the February appointment.

He also admits failing to arrange an urgent blood test in March, and not recognising the implications of signs of blood in the patient’s urine, his back pain and a ‘grossly-elevated level of antigens’ in a blood test.

The doctor also accepts that he wrote in the patient’s notes that he had received phone advice from a hospital urologist. But he has denied knowing that that conversation never took place and his conduct was ‘misleading or dishonest’.

Dr Dennis Cox, an expert witness instructed by the General Medical Council, said he would be ‘very surprised’ if any hospital registrar had advocated a delay in Patient A’s treatment, given his presentation.

“The overall standard of care offered for Patient A fell seriously below the standard which should be expected of a reasonably competent general practitioner,” he said.

In a statement Maggie Harris, an experienced sister in the hospital’s urology department, has told how she was ‘surprised’ when Dr Khan turned up at Burnley General, after hearing how Patient A had been diagnosed with prostate cancer.

The tribunal heard the doctor told her about his supposed conversation with the hospital registrar. But he could not recall a name or timing for the exchange.

Dr Khalid Mohammed, who was the on-call urology registrar when Dr Khan claimed to have called, could not recall speaking to him.

The hearing continues.