Psychiatrist struck off for lying about patient she ‘disliked’
A PSYCHIATRIST has been struck off for making up a damning report on a patient because he ‘reminded her of her father’. Dr Jane McLennan submitted an ‘inaccurate and misleading’ report to an employment tribunal.
She later said she had filed the false report on the man, who claimed he was unfairly dismissed by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), because he reminded her of her father.
The patient, known only as Mr A, had been sacked from his role in the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority, where he had worked as a call handler, in May 2013.
Dr McLennan worked for the NHS at Edinburgh’s Royal Victoria Hospital and also had a private practice.
She carried out an evaluation of Mr A in July 2014 after being hired by the MoJ.
She falsely claimed he had sworn throughout the one-hour, 48-minute consultation, told her he kept taped conversations with ‘girning’ customers, ‘lied’ in his reference and ‘felt like hitting people at work’.
Dr McLennan, 57, then gave evidence under oath at Mr A’s employment tribunal in January 2015 and maintained her report was accurate ‘when she knew it was not’.
The Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) found Dr McLennan’s fitness to practise was impaired after a disciplinary hearing last month. It has now struck her off the medical register.
The MPTS said it appeared Dr McLennan had simply ‘taken a dislike to Mr A’. In evidence, she said she felt intimidated by him, and that he reminded her of her father, with whom she had a difficult relationship.
She said: ‘I was quite put off addressing and completing the report in relation to Mr A. I had been quite intimidated by Mr A and his presentation during our consultation.
‘I felt I was being bullied in the way he was taking control of the consultation and I have never responded well to such behaviour, perhaps because of the way my father had been with me. I can only think that this had an effect on the way in which I was reluctant to address Mr A’s report.’
Dr McLennan’s misconduct only came to light because Mr
‘Felt I was being bullied’
A, who lost his unfair dismissal claim, secretly recorded the consultation on his mobile phone and later reported her to the General Medical Council.
Issuing its decision, the MPTS said: ‘Dr McLennan produced a dishonest report and went on to present this report at an employment tribunal hearing as a true record of the consultation.
‘The tribunal has taken into account that Dr McLennan has not offered an apology for her actions, has not provided any evidence of remediation or reflection, or any evidence of insight into her dishonesty.
‘The tribunal considered that Dr McLennan’s conduct is fundamentally incompatible with her continued registration on the medical register.’