Gateshead GP suspended for fraudulent drug prescriptions

A GP who wrote fake prescriptions has been suspended from the profession for a year.

A Medical Practitioners Tribunal head that John McClelland created fraudulent drug prescriptions 22 times while working in Gateshead.

Dr McClelland said he had no excuse, admitting his actions were “outrageous”.

The tribunal heard that between June and December 2018, Dr McClelland created false prescriptions for “controlled drugs” on patient records while employed by Crowhall Medical Practice in Gateshead. He then printed the prescription, deleted it from the digital file and used the paper copy to collect the drugs from a pharmacy.

In finding his “fitness to practice impaired”, the tribunal imposed the “maximum” suspension of 12 months while acknowledging that his “dishonest conduct is remediable” and ruling “erasure” from the profession “would be disproportionate”.

Dr McClelland said his offences were “despicable, shameful and serious” but “not fundamentally incompatible with returning to medicine”.

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Posted by Karen Motley, Clinical Negligence Department, Chadwick Lawrence LLP (tonymay@chadlaw.co.uk ), medical negligence lawyers and clinical negligence solicitors in Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield and Halifax, West Yorkshire.

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