Wolverhampton drink-drive crash doctor suspended
A GP who crashed his car while he was almost three-and-a-half times over the legal drink driving limit has been banned from practicing for six months.
Dr Shyam Kanchan was driving without headlights when he crashed into another car at about 10pm on July 24 last year, the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service heard.
Police could smell alcohol on the 65-year-old's breath and he was struggling to keep his balance.
The doctor was arrested and gave a reading of 277 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood. The legal limit is 80.
Kanchan received eight weeks and five days in prison and was banned from driving for three years after pleading guilty to drink driving at Wolverhampton Magistrates Court on September 25 last year.
The veteran GP, who has more than three decades' experience, told an MPTS panel that he had gone to a friend's house after working at Rose Villas Medical Practice, Bilston, on July 24, 2013.
He claimed that he had been poured two unmeasured glasses of whisky at the party, which he drank, before driving home. He admitted that his 'lapse of judgement' had placed pedestrians and other drivers at risk.
MPTS panel chair Dr Wendy Kuriyan said: "The panel takes the view that the offence for which you were convicted is very serious in nature.
In the panel's view, as a medical professional, your actions that evening were unacceptable."
Dr Gurmit Mahay, representing Kanchan at the Manchester Fitness to Practise hearing, said
that he could face 'financial ruin' if he was stopped from working.
But Dr Kuriyan said:
"The panel has balanced Dr Kanchan's interests against the public interest and has determined that a period of suspension is the only proportionate response in this case. It determined that six months is the minimum period which would adequately reflect the profession's disapproval."
Kanchan has 28 days to appeal.
