An NHS doctor falsely diagnosed a girl with cancer to scare her mother into paying for private treatment, a tribunal heard.

Dr Mina Chowdhury allegedly told the mother that her daughter had a stomach tumour that could spread if left untreated, before refusing to refer her for NHS treatment.

The paediatrician at NHS Forth Valley was a managing director of a private healthcare firm at the time and it is alleged his actions were 'financially motivated and dishonest'.

Dr Mina Chowdhury allegedly told the mother that her daughter had a stomach tumour that could spread if left untreated, before refusing to refer her for NHS treatment. He is seen yesterday outside the tribunal in Manchester

The claims were made during a Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) hearing yesterday, where Dr Chowdhury was accused of providing false information and creating 'an unwarranted sense of concern' to try and make money.

At the time Dr Chowdhury was working in a private capacity at his clinic in Glasgow.

The mother of the girl, anonymised as Parent A, told the hearing that Dr Chowdhury asked her child to leave the room before saying: 'We are going to have a serious conversation.

'We are going to have a conversation that all parents dread. We are going to talk about the C word.'

Parent A added: 'I was blown away that my daughter had cancer. It's something that had to be dealt with straightaway.

'When I asked him to refer me back to the NHS he refused because they wouldn't stick by him so I didn't think it was an option to get tests done by the NHS. I seriously believed she was that ill. I didn't question him.'

However, when the mother took her daughter to A&E medics could find no signs of the cancer diagnosed by Dr Chowdhury.

Parent A said that she was made to feel as though the NHS was unable to help with her daughter, who was suffering with dizziness, blindness, passing out and chronic weight loss, and was relieved when Dr Chowdhury made the diagnosis.

She said: 'When you have seen your daughter is that ill and you get nowhere, you feel they are turning their back on you. When someone agrees they are in an ill state, you feel someone is trying to help you.

'I hugged him after the diagnosis that she might have cancer, it was a relief that if it was that bad someone was going to help my child.'

Dr Chowdhury denies telling Parent A that her daughter had cancer but claims he said it was a low possibility.

The paediatrician at NHS Forth Valley (pictured) was a managing director of a private healthcare firm at the time and it is alleged his actions were 'financially motivated and dishonest'

The doctor also denies using the expression 'we're going to talk about the C word' and claims that he did give Parent A the option to go to the NHS.

However, Parent A claims that before the doctor diagnosed her child with cancer, she thought he had asked the girl to leave the room so that they could discuss the cost of medical tests.

She said: 'When he mentioned the 'C word' to be honest, quite naively I thought he was talking about cash.

'I thought he'd asked her to leave to talk about finances and I was told it was going to be costly. You never think your child is going to be that ill.'

She claimed Dr Chowdhury advised her that her child would need blood tests costing £3,245 and would need to travel to London for an MRI scan, without discussing referral to the NHS.

'I was quite shocked,' she said.

Parent A alleged that after she took her daughter to A&E because she had collapsed, she became suspicious.

'When they started treatment, alarm bells started ringing because they couldn't see what Dr Chowdhury had said,’ she said. ‘Then after we'd left hospital I decided I would follow it up with the GMC.'

Earlier in the hearing, held in Manchester, another parent alleged Dr Chowdhury had arranged 'inappropriate genetic testing' on a young boy to exclude a diagnosis of cystic fibrosis.

He is alleged to have said the boy, named as patient B, needed an echocardiogram to probe a heart murmur, which he said could only be carried out in London.

Patient B's parent alleged he had created an 'unwarranted sense of concern without sufficient clinical justification' by suggesting over a Skype consultation that her child's high level of B cells – a type of white blood cell – could be due to cancer and later suggesting private treatment that was 'disproportionately expensive' without offering a referral for NHS treatment.

Dr Chowdhury denies all allegations of misconduct, which are alleged to have taken place between March and August 2017.

The tribunal continues.