Troubled sex GPs are still advising private patients

A doctor who was sacked for having sex with multiple women at his GP surgery advised a private therapy patient to buy prescription-only sleeping pills.

During a consultation secretly recorded by BBC West, Thomas Plimmer also failed to clarify that he was no longer on the medical register.

The General Medical Council (GMC) has since advised Dr Plimmer to clarify his non-medical position on his website.

Mr Plimmer said he was unable to comment due to the ongoing appeal against the name removal under legal advice. But he denies misleading patients about his registration status.

During a Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service hearing, the former GP admitted sending explicit material to colleagues, having sexual relations during working hours and behaving inappropriately with women.

The tribunal made its decision about Mr Plimmer – who worked in Swindon – after a number of women complained to the GMC and the Great Western Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.

documents from The 2023 hearing reveals he faced allegations from multiple women between May 2018 and February 2021 And he was branded a “complete liar” by GMC.

The BBC has now learned that Mr Plimmer is still advertising his services through a company he set up at his Gloucester home under the name “Mind Body and Emotional Wellness with Dr Matthews”.

The website highlighted his qualifications as a doctor but failed to mention that he was no longer working as a medical doctor. Since the BBC brought this to GMC’s attention, Mr Plimmer has followed GMC’s advice to clarify this on the site.

In an hour-long consultation costing £80, a journalist from BBC West Investigations posed as a patient suffering from insomnia. He advised her to buy melatonin off the internet, even though it is a prescription-only medicine in the UK.

He told her: “It certainly won’t do you any harm.”

She offered to look at the British National Formulary to see if she could increase the dose of the drug above the recommended level.

The journalist asked him: “Medically do you think there is anything else I can do besides melatonin?”

Mr Plimmer replied: “Apart from a short course of sleeping pills sometimes to break the cycle that may help. Medically melatonin is fine… I would also look into melatonin supplements and contact you on that. I will.”

In a subsequent email Mr Plimmer recommended a starting dose of 2mg.

“If the lower dose is not effective it can be gradually increased to 10 mg at night,” the email said.

The BBC understands that doses up to 10 mg are only recommended in exceptional circumstances.

In the small print of the consent form for counselling, Mr Plimmer said: “My role in mind, body and emotional wellness sessions is not that of a registered doctor of medicine.

“I am not working as a registered doctor in Mind, Body and Emotional Wellness sessions.

“These sessions are not intended to replace advice or care from your health care provider. They should not be considered medical advice or diagnosis and should not be seen as a substitute for any treatment prescribed or recommended by your health care professional. Must go.”

But this was not mentioned on their website or during the consultation with the journalist.

During the consultation, Mr Plimmer also offered one-on-one therapy sessions with the journalist at his home.

Complainants to the BBC and the GMC raised concerns that Mr Plimmer’s website did not announce that he was no longer on their register.

The GMC said in a statement that it had advised Dr Plimmer that “the information on his website should be clarified”.

He added: “But the tribunal imposed the final sanctions on him when they decided he should be struck off the register, and once a doctor is struck off our register we are not able to take further regulatory action Are.

“If a person has a medical degree, there is nothing by law stopping them from calling themselves a doctor – unless they are performing the duties of a licensed medical practitioner or consider themselves a registered and licensed practitioner.” The recipients are not pretending to be doctors, or engaging in conduct calculated to suggest that they are.”

Mr Plimmer did not respond to questions put to him by the BBC about encouraging the buying of prescription-only medicines online, or why he was using the name “Dr Matthews”.