Allowed to keep her job, the psychiatrist in rush-hour crash after 3 bottles of wine
A PSycHIATrIST who downed three bottles of wine before a head-on crash has been allowed to keep her job after she was deemed ‘no risk’ to patients.
Dr Deborah Staite, 50, was uninsured and did not even have a driving licence at the time of the collision in 2020.
She had failed to renew it after serving a previous ban for drinkdriving, a tribunal heard.
The mother of two blamed her offending on ‘work-related stress’ plus ‘challenging events’ at home and ‘exceptionally stressful events’ in her past.
She was allowed to continue working under supervision, despite the General Medical council calling for ‘action to be taken’.
GMc lawyer Laura Barbour told a hearing of the medical practitioners’ tribunal service: ‘The public are entitled to assume that the doctor treating them abides by the law. This is a case where the doctor’s conduct was so serious that action must be taken to protect members of the public and maintain confidence in the profession. There is a risk of repetition.’
In a plea to retain her job, Staite, a senior speciality doctor for Gloucestershire Health and care NHS Foundation Trust, said: ‘I am deeply ashamed of my actions.’
Staite, of Stroud, Gloucestershire, smashed her Vauxhall Viva into a Skoda during the rush hour at 5.30pm on January 21, 2020, in Stroud. She failed a breath test with reading of 116 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35mg.
The tribunal heard that ‘she had consumed a large amount of alcohol, approximately two or three bottles of wine’.
In June 2020, she was given an 18-week suspended prison sentence and ordered to complete a six-month alcohol treatment programme. She was also banned for five years, after admitting driving with excess alcohol, without insurance, and without a licence.
Details of her 2015 drink-driving conviction were not revealed.
However, Philip McGhee, for Staite, told the tribunal: ‘There has been no evidence that she has ever been intoxi
‘Patient safety not at risk’
cated at work. There has been no impact on her clinical performance which could have caused serious harm to patients or put public safety at serious risk. She has worked very hard whilst managing very challenging personal circumstances.’
Mr McGhee did not reveal details of Staite’s personal issues but he added: ‘A reasonable and properly informed member of the public would not expect Dr Staite to be punished by an order of suspension… given what she has already gone through.’
The tribunal found Staite’s fitness to practise was impaired but that suspension would be ‘unnecessary, disproportionate and punitive’.
She will face a review hearing in three years.