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.
Dr Cooling said he was “horrified” by his prescribing mistake. He said he confused the dosage for Aripiprazole with that recommended for another drug, Amisulpride.
He said he was sorry for his “stupid prescribing error which could have had serious consequences”.
But the GMC dismissed the idea it was an isolated mistake.
Their ruling said: “The misconduct found related to a single patient over a period of nine days and the majority of the errors fall into the same category, namely confusing two different drugs.
“However, the panel considers that, on each and every occasion, it was your duty to ensure that you were prescribing the correct drug and the correct dosage.
“On each and every occasion, you prescribed a different and incorrect dosage.
“In short the panel considers that you made a series of related but different errors.”
Dr Cooling’s suspension will start next month unless he appeals.
