A botched operation did not amount to female genital mutilation, a tribunal has ruled.
Dr Sureshkumar Pandya, a GP, performed surgery to reduce the size of a 33-year-old woman’s labia, but the results left her distraught, the Manchester tribunal heard.
The Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service found the anatomical result of the procedure could be said “to be equivalent to FGM”, but cleared Dr Pandya of intentionally causing it.
Chairman Dr Anthony Morgan said: “In your evidence you stated that you were totally against the practice of FGM and would not have any reason to carry it out. In the light of your character and the testimony you gave the panel accepts this.”
Dr Pandya admitted performing labiaplasty on the Muslim woman at London’s Regency Clinic in March 2012.
Asked if he had intended to carry out FGM, he said: “I am very much against it. I have never done it and I don’t think I would ever do it and I didn’t intend to perform it on this patient.”
But the panel also found against him, determining the procedure amounted to a “serious clinical failure”.
Dr Pandya could still face sanctions over errors in record keeping, which he has admitted, and the bungled operation.
