A TWYFORD doctor who exploited the vulnerability of dying patients by telling them his experimental alternative therapy could help them live longer can keep his job, a tribunal ruled.

Dr Julian Kenyon, who offered Sono Photo Dynamic Therapy (SPDT) at the Dove Clinic’s Wimpole Street consulting rooms, was told he must work under a string of conditions for a year.

One of the restrictions bans him performing the treatment, which uses sonar and light, unless the patient has been directly referred by their GP or consultant.

Dr Kenyon, who has a practice at the Old Brewery in Twyford High Street, was found to have brought the profession into disrepute at a Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service hearing in Manchester.

After a 20-minute consultation, which cost £300, he told one terminally-ill man with late-stage cancer: “I am not claiming we can cure you, but there is a strong possibility that we would be able to increase your median survival time with the relatively low-risk approaches described here.”

He also made bold statements about the treatment’s supposed benefits to an undercover reporter who posed as the husband of a woman with breast cancer.

Ben Fitzgerald, for the General Medical Council, had called for the doctor to be suspended, but MPTS panel chairman Dr Surendra Kumar said Dr Kenyon’s misconduct was not serious enough to warrant a ban.

“Whilst the panel found that your misconduct was serious it found that it was not serious enough to require temporary removal from the register. The panel considers that suspension would be disproportionate,” he said.

“The panel did not find any evidence of harmful deep-seated personality or attitudinal problems.

“It has also noted the testimonials from patients and colleagues which attested to their perception of your openness and honesty.

“It has further noted that there has been no criticism that patients were either directly or indirectly at risk.”

The panel instead imposed a string of conditions for 12 months, which keep Dr Kenyon closely monitored by the GMC.

He must attend a review hearing towards the end of the period of conditional registration before he is allowed back to unrestricted work.

The Dove Clinic website says Dr Kenyon was founder-chairman of the British Medical Acupuncture Society in 1980 and co-founder of the Centre for the Study of Complementary Medicine in Southampton and London where he worked for many years before starting The Dove Clinic in 2000.

He is also founder/president of the British Society for Integrated Medicine.

Dr Kenyon did not respond to requests for comment from the Chronicle.