GP awaits verdict of father's death

A Black Country GP was today awaiting the inquest verdict on his father who died after being given a massive drug overdose by an overseas out-of-hours doctor.

Dr Stuart Gray, aged 50, a GP at Church View Surgery in Cradley Heath, has been battling for a change to the way out-of-hours services are run, in the two years since his father's death in February 2008.

David Gray, 70, died after German doctor Daniel Ubani injected him with a fatal 100mg of diamorphine, on his first shift for out-of-hours care provider Take Care Now. The recommended dose is 10mg.

Mr Gray, a father of four and grandfather of four, of Cambridgeshire, had been suffering renal colic and kidney stones when he was treated by Dr Ubani. He died hours after the injection of diamorphine.

Dr Gray and brother Rory, 45, were attending the inquest in Wisbech today to hear the coroner's verdict. Dr Gray, who lives in Blakedown, near Kidderminster, believed his father had been "badly let down" by the out-of-hours care system.

He said: "Other than the kidney stones, my father was fit and young for his age. Renal colic is not a significant chronic illness. My father was severely let down by a system with significant flaws running through it.

"The system for vetting foreign doctors varies from PCT to PCT. There needs to be a national protocol regarding assessments ensuring doctors are suitably qualified."

Health minister Mike O'Brien has commmissioned a government review of out-of-hours services, the findings of which will be made public following the conclusion of the inquest.

Dr Gray did not want to pre-empt the findings but was interested to hear what is in the report.

He said: "I had a letter dated as recently as 2009 from the minister confident that there were "no systematic problems" with the out-of-hours service. I am interested to know what he has to say now.

"We now plan to approach the Home Secretary to put pressure on to bring about changes across the whole of the EU.

"My mother died around four years before my dad, but he was with a new partner at the time of his death who will be with us at the inquest.