A Kenyan-born dentist has been suspended by UK authorities following patients’ complaints on wrong procedures and prescriptions.
The Interim Orders Committee suspended Dr Beatrice Luciola Jepkemoi for 18 months.
COMPLAINTS
Mrs Luciola, a resident of Bexton Lane, Knutsford, UK, has been running the Beyond Dental Care clinic for five years.
The General Dental Council, GDC, was set to hear the case against Dr Luciola on May 4 at the Two East Poultry Avenue, Smithfield, London, but the hearing was adjourned and the suspension imposed instead.
The GDC received the complaints from patients between February and April, with many alarmed by orthodontic dental procedures, allegedly done by Dr Luciola.
They also alleged that she had fled to Kenya after their complaints and that they could not reach her.
But Dr Luciola told the Nation that she had not escaped from her patients, and that she came to Kenya because her father was sick.
She said she was returning to the UK.
In a letter sent to the Nation when we sought to find out if the allegations were true, her Lawyer, Bryan Muindi of TripleOKlaw Advocates, confirmed that Dr Luciola was “in Kenya on compassionate leave tending to her ailing father”.
LETTER
The letter that sought to stop the Nation from publishing this article, confirmed, “Our client owns and runs Beyond Orthodontics and has practiced as a specialist orthodontist of good repute for 19 years in the United Kingdom…”
The authorities in the UK are also investigating claims that numerous dental memberships listed on her website were not registered.
In the suspension letter issued on May 15, 2018 and posted on the General Dental Council’s website, Interim Orders Committee said there was a clear public interest in the proceedings, given that the allegations against Dr Luciola raised concerns on patient safety.
“The gist of their complaints is that Ms Luciola took advance payment in the sum of several thousand pounds for orthodontic dental treatment from them without starting and/or completing the treatment,” the statement indicated.
REFUNDS
The council also said some of the patients also alleged that Dr Luciola did not respond to telephone calls from them regarding their treatment and that she failed to compensate or refund them for treatment that had been paid for but not started or completed.
The committee, in the letter seen by the Nation, said the suspension was necessary to “protect the public”.
The committee will review the interim order at an administrative meeting within the next six months.
Dr Luciola started working at the Manchester Dental Hospital as a newly qualified specialist orthodontist in 2003 before opening her own practice in 2012.
She helped set up the Operation Smile Kenya that deals with lip reconstruction more than 20 years ago, and still has such clinics to date.
An email sent to the clinic by the Nation enquiring about the allegations of medical misconduct has not been answered.
By STELLA CHERONO
-nation.co.ke
