By Staff Reporter

Last updated at 17:02, Friday, 11 September 2009

A Cumbrian GP who tried to resuscitate a patient after giving him six times the correct dose of a painkiller has spoken of his “bitter regret”.

Dr Michael Stevenson

Related: Cumbrian GP tried to cover up giving patient drug overdose - hearing

But Dr Michael Stevenson denies the potentially fatal dose was down to tiredness. It happened after he was called to the home of a west Cumbrian builder while working for out-of-hours GP service CueDoc in January 2005. Less than an hour earlier he had given an almost identical overdose to Workington grandmother Marjorie Wright, 58, who later died as a result.

The GP, from Bootle in west Cumbria, was given a suspended jail sentence after admitting her manslaughter.

Dr Stevenson, 57, who was employed by Seascale Health Centre but working shifts for CueDoc at the time, is now up in front of a General Medical Council disciplinary hearing relating to four other cases.

Yesterday he told the fitness to practice panel that in the case of the builder, the GP thought he was giving a 5mg dose of diamorphine – but actually gave him 35mg. His 59-year-old patient, who has not been named, had called north Cumbria’s out-of-hours GP service after he became stuck on a toilet due to excruciating back pain.

After Dr Stevenson administered the injection, he stopped breathing and went blue in the face. He tried to resuscitate him using mouth-to-mouth until paramedics arrived with an antidote.

But the doctor denied his mistake was down to being too tired. He told the GMC: “As far as I can remember, I saw 5mg. How I came to do that I cannot say. It may be that I was expecting to see that figure. Clearly I bitterly regret the error. I go over it in my mind and try to find an explanation. It has had a big effect on me. I have never ever made an error of that magnitude in my life.”

It was also suggested during yesterday’s hearing that Dr Stevenson was prescribing diamorphine more regularly than other doctors.

The hearing continues.

First published at 11:34, Thursday, 03 September 2009
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk