A MEDICAL Council fitness to practise committee was urged yesterday to throw out all seven allegations of professional misconduct being levelled against a palliative care consultant.
At the end of the second day of the hearing on claims that Dr Dympna Waldron failed to provide a patient who had a benign brain tumour with adequate pain relief at University College Hospital Galway in 2007, counsel for the doctor said he was applying for a direction in the case.
Nicholas Butler said his application was based on the evidence given by the Medical Council’s only witness in the case, Dr Julia Riley, who had said while she had some concerns about the management of Paul Clarke – a man in his 40s from Kilkelly, Co Mayo – there had to be a reasonable doubt as to whether or not this constituted professional misconduct.
The fitness to practise committee will decide this morning whether to hear evidence from two witnesses being put forward on behalf of the doctor or dismiss the case.
Dr Riley, head of palliative medicine at the Royal Brompton and Royal Marsden NHS Trusts, said on Wednesday that having reviewed the medical notes in Mr Clarke’s case, she felt it was “very unwise” of Dr Waldron to reduce the dose of one of the medicines by 50 per cent on admission.
But yesterday she said the reduction in the dose had been 37 per cent, which would give rise to reasonable doubt as to whether the action constituted professional misconduct.
She said she still had concerns as to a medication the patient was put on, which put him at risk of addiction. She said the medical records were “poor” but probably did not constitute professional misconduct. It seemed, she added, there were no palliative care guidelines at the hospital.
Mr Butler put it to Dr Riley that while his client was accused of failing to arrange adequate follow-up care for the patient following his discharge on May 4th, 2007, there were records showing he had been visited by a homecare team and had been issued with an outpatient appointment. Dr Riley said she had not seen the homecare team’s records and accepted there had been follow-up.
Paul Anthony McDermott, for the Medical Council, said the evidence had been that Dr Waldron placed Mr Clarke at risk of addiction and had reduced the dosage of one of his medications that had shown signs of working.