Marios Lambis Successfully Defends General Practitioner

Marios Lambis successfully defended a General Practitioner facing over 97 possible findings of fact.

The GP in question faced allegations of dishonesty, bullying, the deleting of patient records, leaving the practice without doctor cover and improperly closing patient/practice lists. The General Medical Council alleged there were serious issues pertaining to mismanagement of his practice generally, his staff and the inappropriate storing of patient records.

The hearing lasted approximately 5 weeks and there was a plethora of legal arguments.  These included Defence criticism of the GMC in respect of its conduct in the case: in particular, whether it had properly complied with issues pertaining to calling witnesses of truth and properly executing its prosecutorial function not least in reviewing its case as and when necessary.

Legal arguments included, whether the hearing should be conducted remotely, the admission of contested documentation, the amendment of allegations, hearsay applications and a submission of no case to answer.

Marios was successful in arguing:

• the admission of evidence from a separate jurisdiction which the GMC did not wish to have admitted;
• contested redactions to the GMC evidence;
• persuading the Tribunal to refuse the GMC’s application to amend the allegations;
• the admission of abusive and/or threatening WhatsApp messages sent by relatives of one of the GMC’s witnesses to others involved in the case and allowing the Defence to put them to GMC witnesses;
• there was no case to answer in respect of a large segment of the allegations in the light of the nature and tone of the evidence of one of the GMC witnesses.

At the end of the facts stage of the proceedings, the Tribunal found all the outstanding allegations not proved and subsequently determined that the GP’s fitness to practice was not impaired.

Marios was instructed by Sam Flew of RadcliffesLeBrasseur on behalf of the Medical and Dental Defence Union of Scotland.