A medical herbalist has been declared a risk to public safety after he convinced a terminally ill patient that his expensive herbs would "cure" her cancer "in a couple of weeks".

Ian Pile, of Minto, is permanently banned from prescribing or providing herbal medicines to any patient unless a GP has given approval and agreed to supervise the treatment.

Banned from practising: Medical herbalist Ian Pile.

The ban comes after the Health Care Complaints Commission found Mr Pile advised a client with metastatic colorectal cancer that he was able to treat her by "cleansing her blood" and prescribing capsules containing "anti-cancer" herbs.

In December 2014, Mr Pile visited the 60-year-old woman's home at the request of her daughter. Earlier that day the patient had had palliative radiotherapy treatment.