Trainee doctor admits drinking alcohol on duty

A tribunal deemed Dr Maheshwari low risk of repeating the behaviour

A trainee doctor has admitted to drinking alcohol while on night duty and then driving home three times over the legal limit.

Dr Mahweer Maheshwari worked at Shropshire General Practitioner Vocational Training Scheme when the incident took place in October 2021.

He was issued with a warning during a Medical Practitioners Tribunal hearing.

The doctor also pleaded guilty to drink driving and fined £300.

While being sentenced at Telford Magistrates Court, Dr Maheshwari was also handed a community order and banned from driving for two years.

He was undertaking a trainee placement in psychiatry at Midlands Partnership NHS Foundation Trust when the incident happened.

A colleague reported he had not been responding to the on-call bleep and had been "difficult to awake and a bottle of alcohol was found by the bed", the hearing heard.

Harriet Tighe, of the General Medical Council, said he narrowly missed crashing into another vehicle when leaving the hospital car park.

'Support system'

The tribunal hearing concluded that the risk of him repeating the behaviour is low risk and he is now in his final year of training while working as a GP trainee at Albrighton Medical Practice.

Dr Maheshwari told the hearing: "I have never in my life (been) so irresponsible to using any drug/alcohol at work which I really am sorry about as how it could have made things worse due to risk of patients at being harm and I am at risk of hurting myself, hurting others, irrational behaviour."

Medical Practitioners Tribunal chair Nicholas Flanagan said the trainee doctor had since "gained insight into his actions and had an excellent support system in place".

The warning will sit on the doctor's registration for two years.