Drink-drive doc ‘poses no risk to patients’
A JUNIOR doctor arrested twice for drink-driving has been allowed keep her job after a disciplinary panel concluded she posed no risk to patients.
Dr Lauren Fowler, 26, drank white wine with friends over lunch before crashing her Ford Ka in an area busy with pedestrians.
She was said to have been barely able to speak when officers arrived. An empty bottle of wine was found in the footwell of her car.
Fowler, of Woodend, Styal, was bailed. She was stopped in her car again by police less than two months later.
She had downed half a bottle of vodka before driving around a hotel car park near her family home in Styal, Cheshire.
Tests showed she was more than three times over the drink-drive limit.
During a court hearing in January, Fowler admitted drink-driving and failing to provide a breath specimen, but magistrates suspended a jail sentence after hearing she had an addiction to alcohol due to the ‘stress of studying medicine’ at Imperial College London.
She claimed she drank heavily during her studies at the research university and did not know who to turn to for help. Fowler has since quit drinking and is currently serving a three-year driving ban. This week, Fowler, a first year doctor, faced a misconduct hearing held in private at the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service in Manchester.
She was told she could continue working in medicine under supervision for the next 20 months.
In a document issued after the hearing, panel chairman Gillian Temple-Bone said: “The tribunal was aware that there had been a risk to Dr Fowler and to the public by her actions, although fortunately they were minor incidents with no injuries.
“We have heard evidence her performance has exceeded expectations, and that her clinical work has posed no risk to patients.”
Fowler had pursued her career in medicine after she excelled at Stockport Grammar school.
It is thought she attended Clare College at Cambridge before enrolling in 2014 at Imperial College.
Within days of her graduation ceremony, Fowler went out for lunch in Manchester during which she shared a bottle of wine with friends – and then drank more wine while at the wheel of her car.
During her court appearance last January before Stockport magistrates, prosecutor Joseph O’Connor said police attended a minor traffic collision to find the defendant ‘clearly intoxicated.’
As she was arrested she admitted that she had drunk two bottles of wine.
She was bailed to face court but was held again on December 9 after being caught drink-driving at the Stanneylands boutique hotel in Wilmslow.
Police described her smelling of intoxicants and slurring her words.
She gave two samples of breath at the police station and admitted in interview she had drunk half a bottle of vodka before deciding to go to the gym.
Tests showed Fowler had 112 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35mg.
In mitigation her lawyer Helen Turner said: “It is insurmountable the amount of work she does. She works 48 hours during the week, and she works overtime, and also volunteers at the weekend.
“You can’t deny the dedication she has for her career. She has already made steps to making sure this never happens again.”