A north-east health director has been suspended from his post after he knowingly kept money intended for an Aberdeen practice.
NHS Grampian last night suspended Dr Stuart Scott from his role as clinical director of health and informatics after a General Medical Council (GMC) panel ruled his fitness to practice had been impaired.
Dr Scott, of King’s Gate, Aberdeen, became a partner of the Holburn Medical Group in 2006, on the understanding that the agreement would cease if he became bankrupt.
Last week, a panel of experts from the GMC heard that the 48-year-old then became involved with the Local Medical Committees and British Medical Association Committees while continuing to work at the practice. Dr Scott signed a declaration saying any money (honoraria) he received from the BMA’s General Practitioners Fund would go into the medical practice’s bank account.
The fund is for GPs who take time out from their job to represent the BMA, and is paid to medical practices to cover the costs of their employee’s absence.
Dr Scott, who was deputy chairman of the BMA’s Scottish GPs committee at the time, received payments from the fund between August 2006 and December 2008, but did not pay all of it into the Holburn account.
The panel heard that Dr Scott’s finances were in a “dreadful state” and that he had built up a large amount of debt which he tried to pay off with credit cards and loans. In November 2007 he accepted he had become financially insolvent.
Yesterday, the panel suspended Dr Scott from working for a month and ruled his actions had been dishonest and his fitness to practice had been impaired.
John Donnelly, chairman of the panel, said that dishonesty was a “serious matter” and that it would have been “wholly unacceptable” not to impose a period of suspension.
He added: “The panel has had regard to your CV and notes that you are a highly regarded and very capable GP who has also worked hard to develop the NHS in Scotland, particularly in respect of IT.
“Nevertheless your behaviour is serious and has fallen below the standards of conduct and honesty that the public is entitled to expect from a medical practitioner. Your dishonesty undermines public confidence in the profession.
“The panel notes that your dishonesty occurred in relation to the dire state of your personal financial affairs and your increasingly naive belief that the position could be rectified.”
A spokeswoman for NHS Grampian last night said: “NHS Grampian will suspend Dr Scott with immediate effect to allow us time to carefully consider the decision made by the GMC panel.”