With houses worth on average almost £600,000 clustered around a village green, Rowlands Castle appears a picture of tranquillity.
But beneath its prosperous surface, the upmarket community in the foothills of the South Downs has been riven by an extraordinary legal feud between its GP and pharmacy.
The two practices, which share a building in the Hampshire village, have been locked in a six-year battle involving allegations of racism, sexism, environmental pollution and even industrial sabotage.
Locals now fear the dispute could be the most bitter to blight the normally quiet parish since the 12th century when it’s believed the motte and bailey castle which gave the village its name may have been torn down by Henry II.
For decades, the neighbouring surgery and pharmacy had run happily side-by-side in the village, near Havant.
But that changed after the former senior GP partner retired in 2019 and sold the pharmacy to Dr Nemesh Patel and his wife Kay.
Police have repeatedly been called to the simmering dispute, which flared over claims that his successor Dr Brendon Hayes arranged for a power cut which ruined £4,816 worth of Dr Patel’s stock of medicines.
The GP was even alleged to have ‘revved his car’ so exhaust fumes billowed into the pharmacy, tribunal documents reveal.
Rowlands Castle Surgery and the adjacent pharmacy in the Hampshire village of the same name share a building, but relations have been fraught for six years
GP partner Dr Brendon Hayes (pictured) was accused of arranged a power cut which ruined £4,816 worth of medicines at Rowlands Castle pharmacy and ‘ogling’ a female employee from his car
Kay Patel (left) and husband Nemesh (right) bought Rowlands Castle Pharmacy in 2019, but relations with the adjacent village surgery quickly broke down
He was also accused of branding the Patels ‘the wrong type of people’ and reducing Dr Patel’s wife to tears by telling her: ‘I don’t deal with your type.’
In other alleged incidents Dr Hayes was said to have ‘ogled’ a female pharmacy employee from his car and ‘harassed’ her by giving her a card with a teddy bear on it.
Dr Hayes himself accused Mrs Patel of walking into his rooms uninvited between appointments, whilst a fellow GP said the Patels had a ‘propensity to vilify and disparage people who work in the surgery’.
In 2020 the Patels were made subject an injunction sought by the surgery before Dr Hayes was reported to the General Medical Council.
He finally faced a hearing at the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service in Manchester accused of 16 misconduct charges and alleged to have created a ‘hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment’.
Now a disciplinary panel has said the GP authorised the power cut without telling the Patels.
It also ruled he had discussed confidential information about a patient within earshot of other people.
But it cleared him of all the other allegations, saying they were rooted in a ‘business dispute’.
Rowlands Castle in Hampshire where houses fetch on average almost £600,000
Dr Nemesh Patel (left) told a tribunal his wife Kay ‘wouldn’t stop crying’ after a confrontation with Dr Brendon Hayes and accused the village GP of being ‘racist’
Relations soured when Dr Hayes cancelled an arrangement whereby prescriptions for injectable medication were automatically sent to the pharmacy – costing it £7,500 in lost income.
In a letter, the surgery also informed the Patels to cease their ‘knock on the door and walk in’ approach and instead contact doctors by phone or email.
In response, the tribunal heard, the Patels accused the surgery manager of racism and were subsequently struck off the patient list.
Mrs Patel wrote to Dr Hayes accusing him of having ‘an offensive manner’ and speaking to her so ‘rudely’ and ‘disrespectfully’ that she had been reduced ‘to tears’.
In a statement read to the hearing, Dr Patel said on one occasion his wife ‘wouldn’t stop crying’ after a confrontation with Dr Hayes and accused him of being ‘racist’.
A pharmacy employee anonymised as Ms A claimed Dr Hayes would ‘sit in his car and ogle me’ in the practice car park, claiming this had happened ‘at least 40 times’.
‘I found this demeanour extremely upsetting and it made me scared to come to work,’ she said.
‘I felt unsettled, intimidated and that he was preying on me.’
A misconduct panel has now ruled that accounts of the six-year feued between the surgery and pharmacy ‘were most likely to have been coloured by the ongoing business dispute’
She wrote to Dr Hayes accusing him of making pharmacy staff’s lives ‘a living hell with your hostile and upsetting actions’.
Dr Hayes denied racial and sexual harassment, telling the hearing he was often ‘rushed’ as he arrived at work therefore got out of his car ‘immediately’.
He would only delay if he was waiting to hear the end of an item on Radio 4, he added.
The GP said that in six years of working in the same building, he and Ms A would have ‘at least made glancing eye contact’.
But he insisted that ‘I would certainly not have stared at Ms A or looked her up and down’.
In relation to the power cut, he said this had been due to electrical work being carried out.
Dr Hayes accepted the Patels hadn’t been warned in advance but said he had been advised the electricity wouldn’t be off long enough to affect temperatures in the pharmacy fridges.
He said his ‘spur of the moment’ decision had to be seen in the context of the Patels’ alleged ‘obstructive’ behaviour.
Rowlands Castle in Hampshire was the focus of an extraordinary medical tribunal after relations between the village surgery and pharmacy broke down
The surgery’s insurance company later paid out to the Patels for the ruined medication.
The GP also denied deliberately reversing so exhaust fumes were blown into the pharmacy, saying the car park was ‘tight’ and that he had no idea he had triggered their automatic doors to open.
Clearing Dr Hayes to resume medical practise, MPTS chairman Nick Flanagan accused Ms A of ’embellishing’ parts of her story.
He said it was plain that the income generated by the pharmacy had not been what the Patels ‘expected’.
Accounts given to police and the GMC ‘were most likely to have been coloured by the ongoing business dispute between Dr Hayes and the pharmacy’, he added.
The complaints against Dr Hayes are understood to have been made by pharmacy staff rather than the Patels.
A spokeswoman for the pharmacy said it and the surgery now ‘work very well together’ and that ‘patient care and safety is paramount’.
Dr Hayes did not respond to requests for comment.