A doctor sold slimming pills at ‘breakneck speed’
A doctor sold slimming pills at ‘breakneck speed’ to a production line of patients hoping to reduce their weight, the GMC heard today (TUES).
Dr Herbert Kinnell, 60, travelled the country peddling the drugs to queues of anxious women at pubs, community centres and even the boot of his car.
He also made ridiculous claims that the pills improved customers’ sex lives and that people with Scottish names would lose weight faster.
Kinnell did not even properly physically examine the slimmers in the consultations costing seven pounds and lasting as little as a minute, it is claimed.
An undercover police operation finally exposed his ‘potentially dangerous’ and ‘irresponsible’ behaviour in June 1998.
But Dr Kinnell argues that weight loss drugs should be used as a ‘first resort’ to prevent weight gain and not only on those suffering from obesity.
Counsel for the GMC Lynne Griffin said Dr Kinnell did not care about his patient’s health.
‘These clinics were not primarily about medicine.
The foremost care of these clinics was the sale of drugs to women who should not have been given them.
‘The concern of Dr Kinnell was about business, about money and his primary concern was not even reducing the levels of obesity of his patients.
‘It was treated at some breakneck speed, it was a production line conducted in an offhand manner where the only payment was cash with no receipt given.
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Dr Kinnell, registered at 18 Cross Street, Reading, Berkshire, ran the Berkshire Diet Centre based in the same town.
One patient Miss LJ, from Berkshire, complained about the slimming clinic in Greenham Community Centre in spring 1997, where she was handed a bottle of Duromine and water tablets ‘from a large fishing tackle box.
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‘She found 12 ladies queuing outside the clinic in the kitchen of the community centre,’ said Miss Griffin.
‘As Miss LJ was filling in the form others were coming in and drugs were being given to them, and this is happening at some considerable speed.
‘Every visit lasted one to two minutes.
She likened it to queuing at a supermarket.
Everything was treated at some breakneck speed.
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Miss LJ was weighed but there was no further physical examination and Dr Kinnell allegedly said it did not make a difference that she was taking antidepressants including Amitriptyline.
Kinnell gave her the drugs and asked her to bring back the bottles when she had used them.
The woman’s GP later told her not to take the drugs and felt they had affected her depression and the treatment he was giving her for a prolapsed vertebra.
Concerns from a number of sources led a Detective Constable from Norfolk Police to investigate a clinic originally run in Kings Lynn but now operated from the Ark Public House in Thetford, Norfolk.
On May 18, 1998, the DC saw six women queuing at the top bar area where Dr Kinnell handed out drugs from a box to five of them.
He allegedly handed one extra-strong drug to a woman on request even though she had told him she had lost one and a half stone in a fortnight.
‘The officer heard the conversation and he told the woman that was average weight loss and quite normal.
‘The customers knew how to pay and how much indicating the usual practice.
It lasted ten minutes in total.
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Dr Kinnell then sold one week’s supply of a slimming drug to the landlady of the pub for ten pounds.
The DC then approached the grey-haired doctor for proof of his qualifications and checked his car for more drugs.
It was then decided to launch an undercover operation at the pub on June 29, 1998 with tape and video recorders.
‘During the course of the clinic there was references to old girls and new girls.
He would treat the old girls at speed and not one of them was examined properly.
‘The new girls were given some documents and they were treated in an offhand and superficial manner.
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They were given a list of food to eat and asked to restrict themselves to one meal and a maximum of 1000 calories a day, it is claimed.
One officer ‘PC B’ was told that alcohol would keep her weight down and that ‘exercise does not get your weight down, it makes you hungrier,’ the committee heard.
PC C was told if she didn’t have a weight machine it would make her lose weight faster and that cruising holidays were more fattening.
DC A, who had a Scottish name, was told she would lose wight faster because of it.
Miss Griffin added: ‘As you will see and hear on the tapes, the doctor was often humming during the course of a consultation.
‘He also told her she would have more energy on the pills and insinuated the women’s sex lives would improve.
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In Autumn 1999 Dr Kinnell held a clinic at Dormans Community Centre in Gossops Green, Crawley, Sussex.
The organiser of a local youth group running at the same time claims the doctor saw women both fat and thin in the TV lounge.
The police were called and Dr Kinnell cooperated with the investigation.
Dr Kinnell is charged with behaving irresponsibly, inappropriately, not in the best interests of his patients and potentially dangerously.
He has claimed in a series of letters that he was running the clinics at the request and demand of patients.
‘Dr Kinnell challenges the view that diet pills should not be used form slim people and claims using diet pills prevents obesity,’ said Miss Griffin.
‘He makes an analogy to cosmetic surgery and argues it is ethical to use appetite suppressor as prevention of weight gain.
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Dr Kinnell denies serious professional misconduct.
The hearing continues.
ends
addpub.
