Doctor censured over sleeping tablets for suicidal woman

Published on Tuesday 22 July 2008 14:54

A doctor behaved "irresponsibly" by prescribing sleeping tablets to a potentially suicidal patient, the General Medical Council (GMC) said today.

Glasgow GP Iain Kerr prescribed the former businesswoman 30 sodium amytal pills in 1998.

A GMC Fitness to Practise Panel said his decision to give her the pills after she told him she wanted to commit suicide was "inappropriate, irresponsible, likely to bring the profession into disrepute and not in your patient's best interest".

Dr Kerr was also branded irresponsible for not referring the retired businesswoman, known as Patient A, to hospital after she overdosed on Temazepam tablets in 2005.

Panel chairman John Donnelly said the doctor's decision to give her more Temazepam tablets several days later was "illogical".

But the panel, sitting in Manchester, found Dr Kerr was not irresponsible for telling colleagues that he had prescribed sleeping pills to patients to help them end their lives.

The panel found that Dr Kerr had not prescribed sleeping pills to Patient A after she told him she was unhappy with her quality of life.

It also found he had not failed to take adequate measures to dissuade her from suicide.