An expert in skin conditions has told a medical hearing he was “a bit shocked” to learn that another consultant dermatologist had prescribed a medication, normally given to adults only, to an 11-year-old boy with psoriasis.
The evidence was heard at the second day of a Medical Council inquiry into allegations of professional misconduct and poor professional performance against Dr Adam Jacobus Smith of the Whitfield Clinic in Waterford.
Dr Smith treated a boy with psoriasis and prescribed him Neotigason, described as “inappropriate” for children. Another patient, who was then 17, asked the consultant if using sunbeds would help his psoriasis. Dr Smith told him sunbeds could be “unsafe”, but that he could use them twice a week, for two weeks, and not return after that. Consultant dermatologist Dr Con Buckley told the inquiry he found it “extraordinary” that a dermatologist would “condone” the use of sunbeds, which were linked with skin cancer, to help any condition. The hearing continues today.
