A DOCTOR bungled the circumcision of a baby boy so badly that he had to have another operation.

An independent medical watchdog ruled last Friday that Dr Anthonipillai Nicholas-Pillai, a GP at the Bush Hill Park Medical Practice, Amberley Road, not only left the baby boy with "two tone" genitals but then tried to cover up his blunder.

He will be suspended for six months by the investigating Fitness to Practise Panel, but will not lose his license and the panel judged it was not necessary to suspend him immediately because he does not pose a threat to the public.

The 22-week-old Somali boy had too little inner skin removed from his penis. After the operation, the suture lines contracted over the tip of the penis leaving only a pinhole, and three months after the operation in April 2001, another operation was performed by a different surgeon. Experts were divided on whether too much external skin was removed, as well as whether the operation made him look "cosmetically abnormal".

These actions were condemned by the panel as falling "below the standard to be expected of a reasonably competent medical practitioner" and being "clearly not in (the boy's) best interests."

After the event, Dr Nicholas-Pillai acted in a "dishonest" way and was intentionally misleading to the child's parents.

He refused to hand over the notes when they complained about the operation, only sending them on six months later to their lawyer. Then it was found that he had wrongly recorded the date of the operation, as well as the medication given to the little boy prior to the operation.

Panel chairman Dr Roger Ferguson said that the panel gave "little weight to the credibility of your evidence. Overall, the panel was satisfied that besides the date of the consultation, there were a number of inaccuracies in the notes and that they were not prepared contemporaneously or as soon as possible after the matters to which they related."

Mr Nicholas-Pillai now has 28 days to decide whether he will appeal the ruling.