London, May 10, 2005
NRI press
A NRI Dr Jagdeep Gossain, 46, charged the
NHS more than £500,000 in seven years for night visits
that his patients might not need it. He claimed £514,593
for "out of hours" calls to top up his annual
£47,000 salary. He charged for up to 540 emergency
call-outs a month, increasing his annual salary to close
to £200,000 a year. He claimed £1,000 in 1991;
by 1995 the sum had risen to more than £75,000, peaking
in 1996 at almost £160,000. In 1998 when he claimed
£124,591, but most of the average GP in his health
authority claimed just £670.
Dr Jagdeep had a target list of about 100
patients in his practice at southwest London, whom he used
repeatedly on claim forms to Ealing, Hammersmith and Hounslow
Health Authority. In September 1997 Gossain made 542 night
visits, while in November 1997 he made 412 emergency calls.
He saw many patients for only a few minutes with his night
workload and he worked for only an hour in the mornings
and afternoons.
He and his wife, live in a £350,000
house in Hounslow. His three children went to private school
and he drove a Mercedes with private number plates. His
wife, Shashi, a pharmacist, has said that his only crime
was to have been a workaholic.
Gossain claimed that at all times he "acted
in patients' best interests" and had been requested
by them to make the visits. He denies serious professional
misconduct but if found guilty could be struck off the medical
register. In 2001, Dr Jagdeep claims to have damaged his
back. He took sick pay for a year before retiring on a full
pension.
At the end he was caught by a newspaper
weightlifting at the David Lloyd Leisure Centre in Heston
in August 2003.
