Heroin doctor escapes GMC job ban

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/northern_ireland/6996457.stm

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A GP convicted of illegal possession of a heroin-type drug has escaped being struck off.

Dr Owen Rea, 45, of West Strand Road, Portrush, County Antrim, was allowed to keep his registration at a GMC Fitness to Practise hearing in Manchester.

He will not be allowed to clinically treat patients or prescribe any drugs over the next three years.

The doctor was found slumped over his desk at the Terrace Surgery in Portrush in March 2005.

He was taken to hospital and was found to have a syringe and two empty ampules of Cyclimorph.

He falsely claimed the class A drug, a derivative of heroin, had been given to a patient but later admitted destroying the drug himself in a bid to cover up the possession.

Last year, Coleraine magistrates fined him £750 for possessing the drug and making false statements.

Dr Rea told the GMC he worked exclusively doing incapacity benefit and disability living allowance assessments for the Social Security Agency for the past two years.

He added he enjoyed the work and had no intention of returning to general practice.

Dr Rea told the hearing on Friday he was "deeply ashamed" of his convictions.

The panel found his fitness to practise was impaired because of his conviction and his adverse physical or mental health.

The public were excluded from matters relating to the details of his health problems.

Imposing conditions on his registration for the next three years, the panel concluded there was "no question of direct patient harm" and his current work did not involve "any treatment of patients or access to controlled drugs".

"The panel concluded that your acceptance that you will never treat another patient coupled with all the steps you have taken to remediate yourself are sufficient to protect the public interest," it said.