A medical tribunal suspended Cardiff neurosurgeon Dr Chirag Patel for eight months after finding he had a sexual relationship with a vulnerable patient and prescribed her addictive painkillers. The panel said his actions showed reckless disregard for patient safety and placed his personal interests above her care.

The accused doctor, Chirag Patel, a consultant neurosurgeon at Cardiff's University Hospital of Wales, claimed to have prescribed opioid painkillers to a woman named only as 'Patient A' because she "blackmailed" him with threats of exposing their rel