A gynaecologist at a north London hospital who lied to her patient about removing her vaginal implant has failed to get her suspension lifted.
An independent tribunal last year found that Dr Sohier El-Neil had led a woman to believe she could surgically remove all of her vaginal mesh in one operation despite knowing it was not possible.
After the operation the woman, known only as Patient A, even checked with her doctor to confirm if she had removed all of the implant, to which the doctor said ‘yes’. But several months later, the patient learned she would be coming back to the operating table so that surgeons could finish the job.
The Medical Practitioners Tribunal (MPT) said Dr El-Neil did not get “informed consent” from the woman who had explicitly voiced her wish to have the entire mesh taken out. Dr El-Neil, a consultant gynaecologist at University College London Hospital (UCLH) in Camden, also repeated her fiction to NHS colleagues.
Vaginal meshes have in the past been used for urinary incontinence and pelvic organ prolapse, but their use has been restricted in the UK since 2018 after some women experienced chronic pain and other life-changing effects.
Though many women have sought the complete removal of their meshes, this has proved difficult in practice.
In 2024, the tribunal agreed the doctor was guilty of serious misconduct, having deceived both the patient and later writing a dishonest report on the operation. The MPTS suspended Dr El-Neil for nine months.
After the ban temporarily expired in August this year, the gynaecologist sought to have her suspension temporarily lifted on the condition that she would not do any clinical work.
But the tribunal denied Dr El-Neil’s request in September and instead extended it by three months, agreeing that she had not shown she understood well enough what she had done wrong.
While unsparing towards her misconduct, the tribunal was still convinced that Dr El-Neil, who is also a consultant at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in London, did not deserve to be struck off the medical register.
Her dishonesty, they said, had been “an isolated incident”, and as a “highly skilled surgeon” she was still providing a valuable service to the public.
