From Portsmouth today
Earlier post is here
The doctor at the centre of elderly patient deaths at a hospital could face harsh consequences for her actions – even if she is not struck off.
A General Medical Council disciplinary panel has a choice of five sanctions if they find Jane Barton's fitness to practise is impaired.
Dr Barton has admitted a string of allegations relating to her care and treatment of 12 patients at Gosport War Memorial Hospital between 1996 and 1999.The News reported yesterday that following a 10-week hearing the five-strong panel has found her guilty of prescribing 'potentially hazardous' doses of powerful painkillers and sedatives to patients on Dryad and Daedalus wards where she was clinical assistant.Examining the GP's conduct they also found wide dose ranges she prescribed could have led to some patients being overdosed.They said she was guilty of poor note-keeping and prescribing drugs that were inappropriate and not in the best interests of some patients.The panel has now adjourned and will reconvene in January.
They will then hear legal submissions relating to 220 charges proved and then decide whether those findings amount to serious professional misconduct by Dr Barton
The panel will then decide what sanctions – if any – should be imposed.
It has already found evidence 'would not be insufficient' to support her being found guilty of serious professional misconduct.
A General Medical Council spokesman said: 'If the panel concludes that the doctor's fitness to practise is impaired, the following sanctions are available – to take no action, to accept undertakings offered by the doctor provided the panel is satisfied that such undertakings protect patients and the wider public interest, to place conditions on the doctor's registration, to suspend the doctor's registration or to erase the doctor's name from the medical register, so that they can no longer practise.
'Dr Barton – who denies serious professional misconduct – is subject to seven restrictions on her license imposed after the General Medical Council launched its investigation in July last year.
They include a ban on prescribing the powerful painkiller diamorphine.
Any bets on sanctions? Or not as the case may be.
I make no other comments, because I am expecting the GMC to perform to its usual level of competence.
Angus
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