Liver branding surgeon faces fresh tribunal following GMC complaint

Following a decision by the Medical Practitioners Tribunal (MPT) which originally gave Simon Bramhall a five-month suspension, in a new appeal earlier this week, the General Medical Council (GMC) complained that this was an “insufficient” punishment.

Mrs Justice Collins Rice said the former tribunal, which took place last year, did not “put its finger on precisely what was and was not wrong” with the surgeon’s conduct.

She went on to say “It did not do full justice to this unique case. I allow this appeal on that basis. I am satisfied that the right way forward is to quash the sanctions determination and remit the case for a fresh determination by a differently constituted tribunal.”

Simon Bramhall was a transplant surgeon at the University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Trust when in January 2018, he was fined £10,000 and given a community order by a judge at Birmingham Crown Court after admitting to two counts of assault by beating.

He informed police he had used an argon beam machine to initial the organs to relieve operating theatre tensions after long and difficult transplant operations in 2013.

After being suspended, the liver, spleen and pancreas surgeon pleaded guilty to two counts of assault by beating, denying the more serious charge of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, a plea which was accepted by prosecutors at the time.

Bramhall resigned from the trust in May 2014, following a disciplinary hearing.

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Posted by Tony May, Partner/head of Clinical Negligence Department, Chadwick Lawrence LLP (tonymay@chadlaw.co.uk ), medical negligence lawyers and clinical negligence solicitors in Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield and Halifax, West Yorkshire.

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