Thursday 14 January 2010

Patients' inquest focuses on overseas locum care

An inquest into the deaths of two patients in Cambridgeshire treated by a German doctor on his first shift in the UK is due to start later in Wisbech.
 
David Gray, 70, died in 2008 from an overdose of the painkiller diamorphine after being seen by Dr Daniel Ubani, who arrived in the UK the previous day. Iris Edwards, 86 - Dr Ubani's next patient - later died of a heart attack. Mr Gray's family say the case raises questions over the use of overseas doctors for evening and weekend cover.
 
An agency had supplied him to Take Care Now, the company which was running the NHS out-of-hours service in Cambridgeshire. The contract was terminated at the end of last year.
 
In April 2009, the German authorities gave Dr Ubani a nine-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, and he was ordered to pay a £4,500 fine for causing death by negligence. He continues to practise as a cosmetic surgeon in the west German town of Witten...
 
Source: BBC
 

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