DRINK DRIVE DOC ‘REPREHENSIBLE’
Tribunal suspends shamed GP for six months after booze conviction
Satisfied a suspension will have a deterrent effect
IJEOMA OMAMBALA MPTS TRIBUNAL CHAIR
A DOCTOR caught almost three times the drink-drive limit in a Tesco car park has been suspended from work for six months.
Murray Will, 37, got behind the wheel despite being under the influence of alcohol in Glasgow.
Officers in an unmarked police car watched him speed towards an underground parking area. They pulled up beside him and saw him repeatedly reverse slowly into a concrete bollard.
When asked to leave his vehicle, police saw his eyes were glazed and his speech slow and slurred.
He was breathalysed and gave a reading of 58 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 22.
Will appeared at Glasgow Sheriff Court last year and admitted drink-driving in November 2020. He was banned from driving for 15 months and fined £335.
Following the court case, Will, of Glasgow, told a doctor he knew he was over the limit but thought he would “chance it” and got behind the wheel. The doctor, who currently works as a GP at a surgery in Larkhall, Lanarkshire, was hauled before the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS).
He was blasted for “reckless disregard for the safety of others”. Will has also racked up a string of previous driving convictions.
The panel decided to suspend him for six months despite deeming his behaviour to be “reprehensible”.
He dodged being struck off after the MPTS decided he was not “incompatible” with remaining on the register and noted colleagues wrote testimonials supporting him.
MPTS tribunal chair Ijeoma Omambala said: “The tribunal was satisfied a suspension would have a deterrent effect and would send out the desired signal to the doctor, other medical practitioners and the public about what behaviour is regarded as unbefitting for a registered doctor.”