Chesterfield doctor struck off after death of patient

The Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) took action against Dr Laszlo Szabo – who also failed to record that a patient claimed she was escaping from a paedophile ring – last week.

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A previous MPTS hearing was told that Dr Szabo visited a patient – referred to as Patient A – at home as an out-of-hours GP on December 14, 2015.

He diagnosed Patient A with a urinary tract infection and an upper respiratory infection turning to bronchitis.

It was found that Dr Szabo did not carry out a number of tests on Patient A – including a blood pressure check – and failed to ‘adequately consider’ that Patient A had a gastrointestinal bleed.

The following day, Patient A was admitted to hospital after collapsing at home and later died of an upper gastrointestinal bleed.

The tribunal concluded that Dr Szabo’s actions in relation to Patient A were ‘seriously below the standard expected of a reasonably competent GP’.

The hearing was also told that Dr Szabo – who worked as a locum GP at the Grange Family Health Centre in Chesterfield – failed two other patients in September 2015.

One of those patients told him that she had escaped from a paedophile ring which was still active.

However, Dr Szabo had not raised safeguarding concerns as a result of the patient’s testimony.

The General Medical Council investigated Dr Szabo and brought its case against him to the MPTS.

Last Thursday, the MPTS heard Dr Szabo had not practised medicine in the UK for around five years.

Erasing his name from the medical register, MPTS tribunal chair Anya Lewis said: “The tribunal was concerned by Dr Szabo’s persistent refusal to engage fully with his regulator and by his refusal to attempt to remediate his misconduct.

“The tribunal concluded that his actions are demonstrative of a persistent lack of insight into the seriousness of his actions.”

Dr Szabo – whose mitigation included that the three incidents happened over a 10-month period after a long career during which no previous findings of impaired fitness to practise were made against him – has the right to appeal the decision.

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