Bar room psychiatrist gave patient drug surplus

Feb 6 2009 by Sam Casey, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

A FORMER Huddersfield psychiatrist has been suspended for giving a patient too much of an anti-psychotic drug.

Dr Nicholas Cooling, who was a consultant psychiatrist at the Nuffield Hospital in Birkby, was also reprimanded for carrying out a consultation with the man, known as patient A, in a bar.

He has been removed from the Medical Register for six months by the General Medical Council.

The findings of a GMC panel said: “Most of your failings are concerned with serious errors relating to your prescriptions and dosage recommendations in respect of a specific anti-psychotic drug.

“However, the panel has also been particularly concerned by your misconduct in relation to your consultation with patient A in a bar.

“This reflects an alarming attitude to patient confidentiality.”

It is the second time he has been suspended. He was taken off the Medical Register for two months in 2006 for breaching patient confidentiality.

A fitness to practise panel heard Dr Cooling, who now works in Battersea, London, over-prescribed patient A with anti-psychotic drug Aripiprazole in 2007. His prescriptions were up to eight times the recommended dosage.