Patients' sadness at sex-scandal GP's demise

12:50pm Sunday 20th July 2008

Comments (4)   Have your say »

Former patients of shamed family doctor Keith Fraser have expressed their sorrow after he was struck off for having a secret four-year affair with a vulnerable patient.

Teacher Val Wilson, 60, and mum Tracy McMahon, 33 have spoken about the former GP, whom they described as an “intelligent” man.

Their words came after a General Medical Council (GMC) decision to ban him from practising medicine.

A GMC panel ruled his fitness to practise had been impaired in a six-day hearing after details emerged of his affair with an emotionally vulnerable woman whom he was treating for anxiety and depression at the Highfield Medical Practice in Tong, Bradford.

The married father-of-six bombarded the woman with up to 20 phone calls a day, sent her lewd text messages and gave her expensive gifts before taking her to a hotel room where they had sex.

After the affair was exposed, Dr Fraser moved out of the family home in Menston and his wife began divorce proceedings.

Their six children, all aged in their teens and 20s, have refused to talk to their father, and Dr Fraser is now living in a bed-sit in Bradford where he is working as a lorry driver.

Mrs Wilson, of Denbrook Way, Tong, said she was in tears after losing the “well-liked” doctor as her family GP when his 31-year medical career came to an end last week.

Today Mrs Wilson told the Telegraph & Argus: “I am gutted. I wept when I heard that he had been struck off. He was such an approachable doctor.”

The mother-of-four, who had been a patient for about 20 years, said she would have died from a brain aneurysm if Dr Fraser had not immediately referred her to a neurosurgeon, who carried out a six-hour operation to remove it.

She said: “He saw immediately that my bubble was about to burst and referred me to Pinder-fields Hospital in Wakefield.

“I had major mid-cerebral brain surgery, which ultimately saved my life.”

Tracy McMahon, 33, described how Dr Fraser made a dash to hospital with her 13-week-old baby son, Ashton, saving his life.

Ms McMahon of Bierley Hall Grove, East Bierley, said: “If it hadn’t been for him, my son wouldn’t be here.

“I took my son in and the nurse didn’t know what was wrong with him, and wanted a second opinion.

“Dr Fraser came in straightaway and said ‘Call an ambulance’.

“It seemed like a lifetime to me, and the doctor said ‘We can’t wait that long’, so he took us to the hospital himself.

“I’m not saying that he hasn’t done wrong and he is an intelligent man, but it is just such a shame because, in my case, he went above and beyond what you would expect.”