A CIRCUIT Court judge has criticised the lack of an “overall control system” for prescription pads used for medical card patients which means they could not be accounted for when missing.
The court heard how two elderly women had been prescribed psychiatric medicines by their GMS doctors and sleeping tablets by a doctor who had left the practice but continued to use GMS pads owned by it.
It heard how Dr Maria Gordos, a former employee of the practice of Waterville husband and wife team Dr Patricia Gibson and Dr Derry Gibson, had continued to issue prescriptions to medical card patients attached to the Gibson practice after she had left on June 25th, 2008.
Dr Gordos, Carhan, Caherciveen, Co Kerry, a Hungarian doctor specialising in paediatrics, now practises in Killarney. She is bringing an unfair dismissals case against the Gibsons.
Dr Patricia Gibson said they had copies of 39 prescriptions issued by Dr Gordos to GMS patients registered with their practice which they obtained from pharmacists in Sneem and Caherciveen up to January 2009.
The Gibsons had become concerned after discovering patients on psychiatric drugs or sleeping tablets risked being doubly prescribed. There were 200 prescriptions to a pad.
Dr Gibson said there was a risk of overdosing or of inter-reaction, citing the case of two elderly women being prescribed sleeping pills by Dr Gordos when the Gibsons had already prescribed other psychiatric medicines.
“While Dr Gordos was in my practice, she was entitled to these prescriptions” Dr Gibson said, “but she was not entitled to use them when she left. She does not have a GMS number and I am responsible for these patients.
She said during the two years there was never any question about Dr Gordos’s professional ability and they had been very happy with her work.
A retired Garda sergeant, Pat Teahan, said a Garda investigation had taken place, but it was decided not to prosecute Dr Gordos.
Judge Ray Fullam granted an order restraining Dr Gordos from writing prescriptions on GMS pads owned by the Gibsons and awarded costs to the Gibsons. He refused to award the Gibsons damages, saying there had been no financial loss to them.