Doctor jailed for attacks is banned from medical work

A DOCTOR who was jailed for a string of attacks on police officers and hospital workers has been banned from returning to work.

Dr Karen Clark, 36, turned to theft and violence after spiralling into alcoholism and has served two prison sentences.

On one occasion, while off duty, she violently assaulted four nurses after being taken to Crosshouse Hospital in Kilmarnock for treatment.

She punched one nurse in the head, kicked another, dug her nails into the arm of a third and pushed a fourth.

During other incidents, the hospital medic, who worked at Glasgow Royal Infirmary, attacked police officers and was found drunk behind the wheel of her car.

In November last year she was jailed for eight months for breaching community payback orders imposed for theft and housebreaking and a sheriff warned her she would end up dead if she did not deal with her alcohol problem.

Dr Clark, right, from Irvine, Ayrshire, was suspended from working in the profession for 12 months by the Medical Practitioner Tribunal Service (MPTS) last year.

At a review hearing earlier this month, the MPTS disciplinary panel decided to extend her suspension for another year and warned she could be struck off if she does not change her behaviour.

Marianne O’Kane, the tribunal chairman, said: ‘In the absence of any evidence that Dr Clark has expressed remorse or gained any insight into the circumstances that led to her convictions and indeed with evidence of re-offending, there remains a risk of recurrence.

‘The tribunal considers that Dr Clark would be a risk to patients if she was permitted to practise medicine and public confidence would be undermined.

‘Therefore, in all the circumstances, the tribunal has determined that Dr Clark’s fitness to practise continues to be impaired by reason of her convictions.’

Dr Clark did not turn up at the hearing and the tribunal heard she has not been in touch with her solicitors for three months.