An inquiry into a doctor who worked in Donegal when he was precluded from practising medicine in Ireland due to concerns over possible misuse of controlled drugs has made 11 findings of professional misconduct against him.
On Thursday, the Medical Council held a fourth and final day of a fitness-to-practise hearing into Dr Syed Zubair, who worked at Donegal Mental Health Services (DMHS) from March until July 2019.
In late May 2016, Dr Zubair had made an undertaking to the council, the professional regulator, not to practise medicine in the State.
This came after concerns were raised that patients might be at risk because the doctor was allegedly intoxicated or under the influence of substances while working in the acute psychiatric unit of Roscommon University Hospital.
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However, he got a job at DMHS after giving a “manifestly untrue and inaccurate” answer that he was not the subject of an undertaking, the inquiry heard.
The doctor faced 12 allegations of professional misconduct. Many of these centred around his failure to comply with the undertaking and to disclose he was the subject of it when he took up employment in Donegal.
Dr Zubair, originally from Pakistan, did not attend the Medical Council hearing and was not represented.
Marie Culliton, chairwoman of the fitness-to-practise committee, said 11 of the 12 allegations were proven to be fact, with a further four counts of poor professional performance being found.
The first allegation related to Dr Zubair requesting his GP, John Keenan, who is now retired, to write a letter outlining that he had prescribed diazepam, a controlled drug, for him.
However, the GP said he had not prescribed such a drug and agreed only to write a letter outlining the medication he had prescribed.
Ms Culliton said that while it was not expressly stated it was believed the purpose of this letter was to “mislead an employer with a letter from his GP containing an untruth”. She described these actions as a “breach of trust”.
Other allegations related to Dr Zubair wrongly using headed notepaper from the DMHS to write and issue several prescriptions for controlled drugs for a person unknown to the service and with the last known address for Dr Zubair.
The four counts of poor professional performance related to such prescriptions.
One allegation, relating to an email sent by Dr Zubair in 2017 about being “stuck in Pakistan” when he was looking for jobs in Ireland, could not be proven to be true due to a lack of evidence. As such, the committee ruled professional misconduct or poor professional performance “did not arise” in this instance.
Speaking on Thursday, Sinead Taaffe, for the chief executive of the medical council, said the inquiry had outlined the “dishonest or untrustworthy behaviour” of Dr Zubair, which, in the opinion of the CEO was a “serious breach of trust”.
She called on the committee to impose a “sanction at upper end of scale” in light of these findings.
The committee withdrew to consider prospective sanctions, which Ms Culliton said would be shared with the parties at a later date.
