I’ve been looking at them again and while I obviously can’t say they are forged for certain, I agree they are suspect.
Some things I’ve been thinking about:
The letters obviously don’t really look or feel like your standard clinic letters. There is guidance for letters produced by the Professional Record Standards Body (PRSB) so medical professionals maintain clear, consistent, and structured documentation to support delivery of care. Richard saw Dr Gaya privately, but I think the PRSB standards are considered best practice.. Dr Gaya was a consultant clinical oncologist at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospitals for 15 years, so you would think he would be pretty familiar with best practices.
As others have said before the different fonts, font colours and switching between formats (e.g. writing dates as 12 June, 10th March, 24/5…all in the same letter!!) look dodgy, and I’m not sure consultants address each other by first names in clinical letters (“Dear Jamie…”).
As someone on Comment Café has pointed out there are also factual contradictions:
- In the 18 April letter: “October 2022 stable disease. PCI (peritoneal cancer index) 17.” In the 12 June letter: “October 2022 stable disease. PCI (peritoneal cancer index) 24.”
- In the 18 April letter, it states: “FOLFOXIRI-Bev to start April 2023”. In the 12 June letter, it states: “FOLFOXIRI-Bev commenced 10th March 2023”. This date predates the first letter!
Also, in any medical correspondence, whether NHS or private, precision and clarity are surely paramount for patient safety and continuity of care, not to mention legal reasons and making sure everything is accurate/compliant for auditing and quality assurance purposes…but these letters are so vague and non-specific I am wondering how a consultant could have dictated them or approved them.
Things I’ve noticed…
- No mention of dosages when chemotherapy regimens. Would the dose of each drug in the regimen tailored to the patient would be included? Wouldn’t it also state how often the regimen is administered, how many cycles are planned, and how many of those expected cycles have been completed? Instead the letters state only how many cycles have been completed. Also, if the doses of drugs in a chemo regimen can be adjusted or modified due to side effects, there is no mention of this despite Richard’s terrible side effects.
- No mention of other medications currently being taken – particularly given the allergic reaction, I would think any other medications a patient is taking would be mentioned to rule interactions out. I can’t see any mention of the pain medication he takes and the consultant doesn’t even give any indication of the laxatives Richard is prescribed for his constipation/obstructions.
- “Initially felt to be T3 N1 M0” – would a consultant write about medical professionals acting on ‘feelings’? Wouldn’t they write “initially staged as” or “initially diagnosed as”? Even “believed” is better than “felt”!
- “Several large gaps in chemotherapy due to admissions for sepsis” – a consultant would give specific durations/dates. Would they omit details about the sepsis? What caused it, how was it managed, how severe was it, is it likely to happen again and pose a risk to further treatment?
- “Other liver metastases relatively stable” – would a consultant use “relatively” which is non-specific? Wouldn’t they give specific results or measurements?
- “There are about 9 liver metastases in total, all small” – would a consultant use vague terms like “about” or “small”? Wouldn’t they give the specific number, sizes or measurements of metastases?
- “Richard’s chemotherapy course since last October has been quite sporadic…” – would a constant describe chemotherapy as “quite sporadic”? Wouldn’t they detail the specific intervals?
- “I therefore feel it would not be unreasonable to give him a trial of further FOLFOXIRI chemotherapy” – so now this consultant is acting on feelings and uncertainties…wouldn’t he clearly state his recommendations?
- “There is a theoretical risk of primary tumour perforation, but this risk is relatively low” – wouldn’t a consultant clearly state the risk and refer to relevant data or studies to quantify it?
- “He was not well enough to come to the phone” – given the severity of the patient's condition wouldn’t a consultant explain why a patient was not well enough to attend? Symptoms he was experiencing, and what they could be attributed to? (Other than “extreme discomfort”, “quite nauseous” and “quite exhausted”…I mean he could have a hangover or eaten a dodgy prawn for all that tells anyone!!!)
- “He was admitted to hospital over the weekend with constipation … and required laxatives in order to get his stoma moving again” – I can’t believe any consultant writes a clinical letter to another consultant and talks about getting a stoma “moving again” when he could talk about interventions or use of laxatives to alleviate the reduced stoma output!
- “Some of the effects described, like difficulty passing urine, could be secondary to the atropine injection administered before the irinotecan, but the flushing and tightness in the throat do sound like a form of reaction to oxaliplatin…” – “some” and “do sound like” is informal and non-committal. “Some” of the symptoms? Which symptoms were they, as the letter doesn’t detail a comprehensive list of symptoms encountered as part of this allergic reaction. Also, “do sound like”…wouldn’t a consultant talk about symptoms being ‘indicative’ of a potential reaction or ‘consistent’ with known side effects or reactions?
- “I am keen if possible to get a couple more cycles in followed by some imaging…” – a “couple more” cycles? “Some” imaging?
- “Lisa and Richard are going to have a discussion about the best way forward. At the moment he is feeling quite depressed about the situation, and this is completely understandable. He will make a decision by the end of the week as to what he wants to do for the next cycle” – this all feels a bit off. Richard is the patient, not Lisa, so surely he would be mentioned first and “best way forward” and “quite depressed” are both vague and colloquial. Why would any medical professional describe a patient as “quite depressed” when they could say, for example, that they are experiencing emotional distress?
- Cromwell Hospital, the London Clinic and GenesisCare UK are listed at the top of the letter, I assume as they have received copies, but not Richard's GP??
These things all seem quite minor in isolation but combined they make me seriously wonder if he has forged or tampered with these letters.
Then add in all the other weird stuff like the GFM, creating and dissolving multiple limited companies and consistently failing to file accounts yet bragging about how wealthy he is, lying about weight loss surgery etc…he should be investigated.