Psychologist slammed over late report

Published on 02/04/2004 01:00

A LEADING psychologist has been severely reprimanded and told that a supervisor must look over his work after taking 15 months to prepare a report on a child.

At a disciplinary hearing in London, Dr Kenneth John Aitken, 47, formerly of the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Edinburgh, was ordered to produce a supervisor’s report on his work every six months for the next two years. Dr Aitken, currently working for the NHS in Glasgow while carrying out private practice in Edinburgh and Inverness, admitted the allegations of misconduct.

A family had consulted Dr Aitken because a father and his son suffered from Asperger’s syndrome, a form of autism, and feared that the son’s new baby girl could become autistic if she had the controversial MMR injection.

They had first approached Dr Aitken for his advice in September 2001 but did not receive his report until December 1, 2002.

A second report was commissioned in January 2002 and it took until March 2002 to get a reply from the doctor. Dr Aitken said he had been overwhelmed by work.