Pool v General Medical Council
2014
ADMINISTRATIVE COURT
UK
CORAM
- MR JUSTICE LEWIS
Areas of Law
- Administrative Law
- Health Law
- Evidence Law
2014
ADMINISTRATIVE COURT
UK
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
Dr. Pool was found guilty of misconduct by a GMC panel for acting outside his expertise as an expert witness in a paramedic's fitness to practice case. His medical registration was initially suspended for three months. On appeal, the High Court upheld the findings of misconduct but replaced the suspension with a condition that Dr. Pool could not serve as an expert in such proceedings for three months, deeming the suspension disproportionate.
Judgment
Mr Justice Lewis :
Introduction
This is an appeal brought pursuant to section 40 of the Medical Act 1983 (“ the Act ”) against a decision of 13 June 2014 of a Fitness to Practise Panel (“the Panel”) constituted by the Respondent, the General Medical Council (“the GMC”). By that decision, the Panel found certain allegations against the Appellant, Dr Pool, proved and decided that they amounted to misconduct and resulted in an impairment of the Appellant’s fitness to practise. The Panel imposed a sanction suspending the Appellant’s registration as a doctor for a period of 3 months.
In brief, the Appellant was instructed to appear as an expert witness in a fitness to practise panel of another individual, “A”, who was a paramedic. He prepared a psychiatric report on whether A’s psychiatric problems were of sufficient severity to impair her fitness to practise. Objection was taken to the ability of the Appellant to act as an expert in this field and that objection was upheld. The Appellant was, himself, subsequently the subject of allegations of misconduct.
The Panel found that the Appellant was not an expert in the field of general adult psychiatry and that he had failed to restrict his opinion to areas of which he had expert knowledge or direct experience and gave evidence on matters outside his professional competence. The Appellant contends that these findings are wrong or that the Panel failed to give adequate reasons for the findings. The Appellant also challenges the finding that his report was inadequate in that he failed to explain the reasons for his opinion that A’s fitness to practise was wholly and indefinitely impaired. The Appellant also challenges the sanction imposed of three months’ suspension.
THE FACTS
The Background
The Appellant is a psychiatrist. At the material time, he was employed as a consultant psychiatrist in the private sector working in a secure hospital. In August 2011, he accepted instructions from a firm of solicitors, Kingsley Napley, as an expert witnesses in proceedings before the Health Professions Council (“the HPC”). That case involved consideration of the fitness to practise of a paramedic, A, who had been diagnosed as having a personality disorder and post traumatic stress disorder, in part as the result of abuse suffered during childhood. The Appellant prepared a report on A and the question of her fitness to practice. A objected to the evidence being received on the grounds that the Appellant was not a