Overdose killing GP spared jail

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/england/cumbria/6569393.stm

Version 0 of 1.

A GP has been spared jail for killing a patient by accidentally giving her six times the required dose of diamorphine.

Dr Michael Stevenson, 54, of Bootle, Cumbria, admitted the manslaughter of Marjorie Wright, 57, from Workington, who died on 30 January 2005.

Preston Crown Court heard that Stevenson had suffered from depression since childhood and had tried to bury his mental illness through overwork.

He was sentenced to 15 months in prison, suspended for two years.

The court heard Stevenson had worked an average of two double night shifts a day every day for the two weeks prior to Mrs Wright's death.

No punishment inflicted on you will ever seem adequate to expiate [the family's] sorrow Judge Richard McCombe

A senior partner at the Seascale Practice, he had been forced to take a sabbatical by colleagues over earlier concerns about his "workaholic" nature.

He was working for on-call out-of-hours GP service Cuedoc when he was called to the home of Mrs Wright who was suffering from a migraine.

After injecting her with diamorphine, Stevenson failed to monitor her reaction to the drug and minutes later the widow was dead, the court was told.

Judge Richard McCombe heard the GP, who later confessed the blunder to a colleague, had suffered severe depression since the suicide of his daughter Catherine in October 2006, and had frequently considered suicide.

'Not overworked'

Judge McCombe said: "I have before me statements from Mrs Wright's daughter and from one of her brothers testifying to the devastating loss that Mrs Wright's death has meant to them and her young grandson.

"A court cannot fail to be moved by such clear expressions of grief. Nothing the court can do can repair their loss.

"No punishment inflicted on you will ever seem adequate to expiate their sorrow."

Stevenson has volunteered to be removed from the GMC Medical Register and has vowed not to practice medicine again.

Following the sentencing, a spokeswoman for Cumbria NHS Primary Care Trust claimed the doctor was not overworked in the weeks leading up to Mrs Wright's death.

She said NHS records contradicted information given in court, and showed a "normal workload" of five single shifts and five double shifts, including only one night shift.