False prescriptions doctor's licence suspended

Dr Marc Whitehouse admitted all the charges against him at a disciplinary hearing

A medical tribunal has found a doctor's fitness to practise to be impaired for writing false prescriptions.

Dr Marc Whitehouse admitted to writing prescriptions while impersonating a chief medical examiner on five occasions between March 2016 and December 2018.

At a Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) hearing, it was also proven he wrote prescriptions for patients he falsely said were in the custody of West Mercia Police while pretending he worked for the force.

The MPTS imposed a four-month suspension on the Herefordshire doctor's medical licence at the hearing.

Dr Whitehouse, who received his qualifications from the University of Birmingham, has worked for the Wye Valley NHS Trust since 2016.

Between 2011 and 2016 he also worked as a forensic medical examiner on a self-employed basis but the tribunal in July determined he had written the false prescriptions outside this period.

'Wholly unacceptable'

It was also found that on 6 June 2016 and 5 October 2019, Dr Whitehouse wrote prescriptions for two patients he claimed were in custody with West Mercia Police when they were not.

The force confirmed he had worked as a contractor for them between 19 September 2013 and 31 October 2015 but was not working for them at the time of the allegations, the MPTS said in their ruling.

Dr Whitehouse also admitted to allegations that on 29 December 2018 and 5 October 2019, he wrote prescriptions on paper with a letterhead of "Whitehouse Medical Services Ltd" - a company which the tribunal heard had been dissolved at the time the prescriptions were written.

West Mercia Police opened a fraud investigation into the incidents and referred the doctor to the General Medical Council in October 2019 who referred the case to the MPTS.

The force has been approached by the BBC for the latest on their investigation.

The tribunal concluded suspending the doctor's licence "would balance Dr Whitehouse’s interests to continue working as a doctor with the need to send a clear message that his behaviour was wholly unacceptable for a member of the medical profession."