A DOCTOR behaved irresponsibly by prescribing sleeping tablets to a potentially suicidal patient, the General Medical Council ruled yesterday.
Iain Kerr, a Glasgow GP, issued the prescription for 30 sodium amytal pills to a retired businesswoman in 1998. A GMC fitness-to-practise panel said his decision, after she told him she wanted to take her own life, was "inappropriate, irresponsible,
liable to bring the profession into disrepute and not in your patient's best interest".
Dr Kerr was also branded irresponsible for not referring the woman, known as Patient A, to hospital after she overdosed on temazepam tablets in 2005. John Donnelly, the panel chairman, said his decision to give her more temazepam tablets several days later was "illogical".
Today, Dr Kerr will learn what action, if any, the GMC plans to take against him.
The GP was cleared on other charges. The panel found he was not irresponsible for telling colleagues that he had prescribed sleeping pills to patients to help them to end their lives.
It ruled that he had not prescribed sleeping pills to Patient A after she told him she was unhappy with her quality of life, and that he had not failed to take adequate measures to dissuade her from suicide.
Mr Donnelly said: "Patient A was an elderly lady who made her end-of-life wishes quite clear, in that she did not want to become a burden upon her family. The panel found she was determined to end her own life."
Dr Kerr, who has practised for 30 years at the Williamwood Medical Centre in Clarkston, Glasgow, said he gave the woman the sleeping pills as an "insurance policy". He told the panel: "She said, 'Give me something that I can take if things get too bad' and I said yes."
She later disposed of the sleeping tablets because she did not want to get him into trouble after learning he was being investigated by health chiefs for his views on assisted suicide.
Patient A had osteoporosis and feared becoming a burden upon her family, the GMC heard. She had made an advance statement in which she expressed her desire not to be resuscitated if she became gravely ill. Her son told the panel she was strong-minded and had a high regard for Dr Kerr.
The GP gave her the sleeping tablets seven years before she eventually took her own life, aged 87, in December 2005. She killed herself 12 days after making a failed suicide attempt with a temazepam overdose.
Dr Kerr prescribed more temazepam, which she took with a cocktail of other drugs to kill herself. The doctor denied he had been "reckless" in writing out this prescription.
The full article contains 456 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
