HE’S ALREADY SENT 12 PATIENTS TO DIE

Struck off for dodgy drug treatment but he still offers consultations

BANNED doctor Colin Brewer has helped at least 12 people die in the past two years, providing them with the medical reports they need to commit assisted suicide.

The majority of these did not have terminal illnesses.

Since he was struck off the medical register in 2006 Brewer has been holding consultations for suicidal patients at his £2.5million Georgian mansion on the Thames.

From his home – which overlooks St Paul’s Cathedral – he writes assessments for these patients after establishing if they are ‘mentally alert’ enough to know what they are doing.

These assessments are accepted by Dignitas even though Brewer, 74, was found guilty of serious professional misconduct by the General Medical Council (GMC) nine years ago. He was struck off the medical register after one of his patients died when he was sent home with a ‘DIY detox’ kit that included heroin substitutes.

Grant Smith, 29, from Northampton choked on his own vomit in September 2001 after taking the cocktail of drugs, including diazepam, rohypnol and temazepam. Other patients developed further addictions as a result of Brewer’s techniques at the Stapleford Addiction Clinic, where he was medical director, the GMC found. The private drug clinic, based in London’s upmarket Belgravia – which Brewer founded in 1987 and is still running – was popular with celebrities, including Amy Winehouse and Pete Doherty.

While a person must be on the medical register to work as a doctor and treat patients in the UK, and be registered with the GMC to work in the NHS, there is nothing to prevent a doctor who is struck off making money from seeing and assessing patients, or offering non-medical services such as counselling – so long as they make it clear to the patient they are not on the register.

‘I am not doing anything illegal,’ Brewer told the Mail. ‘Doctors don’t have to be on the medical register to work and I am very open about the fact I am not. If someone had an acute risk of suicide I would of course call the cops right away.

‘Mental capacity assessments involve relatively simple criteria. They can be done by suitable nonmedical health professionals such as psychiatric nurses. Nobody – including the GMC – has ever questioned my general psychiatric skills.’

Brewer has previously spoken openly about how he helps people without terminal illnesses to die. He co-edited a book, I’ll See Myself Out, Thank You, which horrified opponents of assisted suicide. In it he detailed the cases of seven patients he has written assessments for, who went on to die at Dignitas. Only one had a terminal illness. Speaking about Jacques, a retired academic in his seventies who suffered arthritis, heart disease and high blood pressure, Dr Brewer said: ‘It sounds no worse than in most people of his age. But he dreaded the possibility of a sudden deterioration… that would deprive him of the mental capacity to decide on the manner of his death.’

Brewer says a third of the patients who contact him are referred by Dignitas. Others find him from campaign groups such as Friends At The End, who yesterday said they were ‘proud’ to recommend him.

Brewer said he has raised doubts as to whether some patients should go ahead with an assisted suicide. This may have been because he felt the patient had not exhausted all treatments available or because he questioned their mental capacity to decide they wanted to die.