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The appellant general practitioner (U) appealed against the decision of a fitness to practise panel of the respondent General Medical Council, finding her guilty of misconduct and erasing her name from the medical roll.

U and her husband, through a company they owned, had purchased a care home. Under the relevant employment legislation the employees of the care home including the manager (H) were transferred to the company. H resigned and an employment tribunal found that she had been unfairly dismissed. U referred H under the Protection of Vulnerable Adults (POVA) scheme and H was placed on a list barring H from working with vulnerable adults. That decision was later reversed. H referred U to the GMC. After applying the Ghosh test of dishonesty the panel made five findings of dishonesty. It found that her conduct in referring H to POVA was misleading and irresponsible, that the witness statements submitted by U had been falsified and that she should have ensured that the material sent to POVA to substantiate the referral was accurate. The panel found that her fitness to practise had been impaired, that she was guilty of misconduct and that her behaviour would damage the public trust in the profession and bring it into disrepute. The panel concluded that erasure from the roll was the only appropriate sanction. U challenged the panel’s findings on dishonesty.

Counsel for the appellant: Mary O’Rourke QC, Nadia Motraghi

LTL 23/7/2012