Doctor 'should be struck off for pointless MS treatments'

Dr Robert Trossel, 56, has failed to give MS patients refunds for the thousands of pounds they spent on treatment at his clinic in Rotterdam, Holland, the General Medical Council (GMC) heard.

Tom Kark, for the GMC, spoke of the patients' "anger and sense of being let down" after being offered a "mirage" of treatment by Dr Trossel.

He told the GMC fitness to practise panel that Dr Trossel, who trained in Holland, should be struck off.

"They were all vulnerable patients who already found themselves failed by the medical profession in this country and as a result were searching, some with desperation, for a cure or relief elsewhere, which is why and how they ended up in Dr Trossel's hands," Mr Kark told the GMC.

"They were given false hope by him and the experience not only cost them financially but for the most part it caused them personal and emotional loss when they realised that the treatment provided to them was not only expensive but pointless."

Dr Trossel has been found by the GMC fitness to practise panel to have injected five MS patients between August 2004 and August 2006 with a substance said to contain stem cells, a move described as medically unjustifiable, "inappropriate" and exploitative of vulnerable patients.

Two of these patients, along with another MS patient, were advised by Dr Trossel to undergo a treatment called Aqua Tilis therapy – described as involving a steam room with an MRI machine. The panel said this was also scientifically "unjustifiable" and exploitative.

Earlier this month the panel ruled his actions constituted "repeated and serious" breaches of many of the "essential tenets" of good medical practice and that his fitness to practise was impaired.

Robert Jay, QC, defending Dr Trossel, described him as a "genuine and compassionate" medical practitioner and said the GMC had not found dishonesty in his case.

The panel has retired to consider what sanctions to impose.