GP says he was 'stupid' to offer organ from live donor

A GP accused of offering to "fix" the purchase of a kidney from a live donor spoke of his shame yesterday, as the General Medical Council announced that a second doctor had been accused of involvement in the illegal organ transplant trade.

Dr Bhagat Makkar, 62, from Lewisham, south London, told a GMC disciplinary hearing that he had been "stupid" to make the offer to an undercover reporter who, he claimed, had framed him, but he had never intended to supply the organ. He denies serious professional misconduct.

The GMC confirmed that a Coventry GP, Dr Jarnail Singh, would face a medical tribunal accused of serious professional misconduct for allegedly claiming to be able to buy a kidney from a live donor in India. The GMC said the two cases were unrelated, but the emergence of a second case is likely to cause alarm bells to ring at government level.

Dr Makkar was taped making the offer to a journalist from The Sunday Times in March last year, just two days before he was due to retire.

In spite of protests from Charles Foster, counsel for Dr Makkar, that the tape recording should be ruled inadmissible because the doctor had incriminated himself unwittingly, the disciplinary panel ruled that its use would not infringe the doctor's rights.

Giving evidence, Dr Makkar said: "I still regret in my heart how stupid I have been ... I simply said 'I can fix it' in the sense that some people were coming from India and I could talk with them. I was trying to say I would make inquiries about it, not I would find donors."

Dr Singh, practises at the Hillfields Health Centre in Coventry. He is due to face a GMC disciplinary panel in Manchester on 14 October. No more details about his case are known. If the case against either doctor is proved, they will be struck off. Dr Makkar's hearing continues.