Baytown doctor headed to prison

Despite TMB complaints, federal conviction, he still holds doctor’s license

Dr. Ghyasuddin Syed, who runs a pain management clinic in Baytown, is scheduled to report to prison in July after pleading guilty to “conspiracy to defraud the federal government.”

Syed told KPRC 2 Investigates said he is a good person and a charitable doctor during an interview with Joel Eisenbaum. However, after the original story aired, two people, KPRC 2 verified as former Syed patients, came forward about their experiences with the doctor.

One of the women claimed in testimony to the Texas Medical Board, she was sexually assaulted by Syed in 2018 during an exam.

We are not revealing her name here, but that patient does not believe the Texas Medical Board has not done enough to protect other patients.

“You told your story, you told the truth, you did everything you’re supposed to do and for some reason, it failed,” the woman said.

The Texas Medical Board issued a finding that Syed exhibited “inappropriate behavior” with three female patients and ordered him to take a professional standards course. He is also barred from seeing female patients without a chaperone.

Syed said the incidents never happened and said he had not been treated fairly by the Texas Medical Board or the justice system.

Baytown police investigated at least one claim of sexual assault involving Syed, but a Harris County grand jury “no-billed” the case, declining to indict the doctor on any criminal charge related to the alleged incident.

Syed’s physician’s license remains “active” as he prepares to head to prison. His practice was closed Friday, but it is not clear if it is still open for business in any capacity.

The doctor had said in a previous interview he was making plans to retire, but even the process of voluntarily surrendering a medical license, is not immediate, a Texas Medical Board spokesperson wrote Friday.

“If someone does surrender their license in lieu of disciplinary proceedings, there would still need to be an order signed by the respondent, which is then ratified at a Board meeting. So that would not be effective unless and until that occurred. The order would then be public and published on the online profile and board meeting release like all disciplinary orders,” wrote via email TMB Communications Officer Jarrett Schneider.

As of Friday, Syed’s license was listed as ‘active’ on TMB’s website.