Consultant ran Bupa clinic still drunk from night before
A BUPA doctor was arrested for drinkdriving after holding a morning clinic for patients while still intoxicated from the night before, a medical tribunal heard yesterday.
Consultant radiologist dr Margaret Phelan was asked to leave the private hospital after alcohol was smelt on her breath and she appeared unsteady on her feet.
she was offered a cab but got into her car, only for a guard to stop her and call police.
dr Phelan, 67, later admitted she was ‘out of order’, adding: ‘I was drunk, drove to work and saw a patient.’
The mother-of-three was found to be more than double the drinkdrive limit and was later banned from the road.
Yesterday she was fighting to save her career after being accused of misconduct over the incident on April 17 last year.
The night before, dr Phelan – then based at the Chelsea and westminster Hospital NHs Foundation Trust – had been toasting her youngest son who had been promoted at work. Trouble began when she arrived at the Cromwell Hospital in Kensington, west London, at 8.20am and a guard alerted medical director dr Barbara Buckley.
she spoke to dr Phelan – who had already begun her first consultation – and could ‘smell old alcohol’, Christopher Rose, lawyer for the General Medical Council, told the hearing.
dr Buckley found she seemed muddled, Mr Rose said. ‘she initially refused to go home, saying she was concerned for patients who had appointments later that day, and that the next patient she needed to see was a child.
‘But she was told she needed to go home but not to drive.’
dr Buckley offered her a cab and escorted her out, noticing she was ‘unsteady on her feet’.
dr Phelan tried to drive home but a security guard called police.
Tests showed she had 82micrograms of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35mg.
‘when interviewed by police she said she had been drinking red wine the previous evening and could not remember what time she stopped consuming alcohol,’ Mr Rose said.
In May last year at westminster Magistrates’ Court dr Phelan pleaded guilty to drink driving. she was fined £1,490 and banned from the roads for 20 months. she referred herself to the GMC for investigation and is currently ‘partially retired’.
Giving evidence, dr Phelan said she ‘must have been drinking after midnight’ the night before her arrest. ‘I did not think about the safety of driving that morning, I must admit,’ she added.
‘If I had thought about it I would
‘Unsteady on her feet’
not have driven. I did not feel drunk or unready to drive.’ dr Phelan said ‘things took a while to sink in’ after she was challenged by dr Buckley. But she insisted she was ‘not trying to bluff’ her way out of the situation, the Medical Practitioners Tribunal service in Manchester heard.
dr Phelan’s counsel Michelle Brown said she had ‘always maintained the highest professional standards’ until that morning.
The hearing continues.