Doctor found guilty of misconduct but will face no sanction

A consultant physician who placed a very ill but mentally competent patient on palliative care without immediately consulting her on that decision, only for the patient to die before consent had been obtained, has been found guilty of misconduct by a medical practitioners tribunal. But Susannah Rowles will face no sanction after the General Medical Council (GMC) failed to prove any of its numerous allegations of clinical failures and dishonest behaviour, leaving only failings that she long ago admitted and remediated, the tribunal found.When she saw the elderly patient on her rounds at Fairfield Hospital in Bury, Rowles categorised her in her notes as being in the last phase of life. But, she told the tribunal, she delayed the discussion about palliative care until later that day, when she knew the patient’s family would be at the hospital. She nevertheless began a palliative course of treatment immediately, increasing the patient’s…
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