The Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence is to review a GMC fitness to practise panel decision to allow Dr Jane Barton to continue to work.
The CHRE has the power to refer the case to the High Court if it considers the decision by the panel unduly lenient.
Dr Jane Barton, a GP in Gosport, was found guilty of serious professional misconduct but was allowed to continue working with certain conditions placed on her practise.
She was accused of a series of failings in her care of 12 patients at Gosport War Memorial Hospital in the 1990s. Dr Barton prescribed “potentially hazardous” levels of drugs to elderly patients and was found guilty of putting them at risk of premature death.
Eleven conditions were place on her work, including a ban on injecting opiates for three years. The panel said it had taken her 10 years of safe practise as a GP, and strong local support, into consideration.
Dr Barton said after the ruling: “I am disappointed by the decision of the GMC panel. Anyone following this case carefully will know that I was faced with an excessive and increasing burden in trying to care for patients at the Gosport War Memorial Hospital.”
Following this controversial decision, the CHRE called for the transcripts of the case. The NHS Reform and Health Care Professions Act 2002 gives the CHRE powers and responsibilities for protecting the public.
Under Section 29, it can review all final stage fitness to practise decisions made by healthcare regulators’ committees and panels. These decisions can be referred to court if it considers they are unduly lenient and that referral is necessary in order to protect the public.
Read a blog on the issue.
Tags: GMC
