GP acted ‘disgracefully’ over cancer cover-up

A DOCTOR who admitted trying to cover up his failure to note a recommendation of further surgery for a now terminally ill patient behaved disgracefully, the Irish Medical Council’s fitness to practise committee said yesterday.

It recommended that Cork GP Dr Patrick Joseph Lee be suspended from practising medicine for three months after finding that the doctor’s behaviour fell seriously short of the standard expected of a medical practitioner.

Garda Superintendent Martin Dorney, 50, a married man with three children, living in Waterfall, Co Cork, complained to the council about Dr Lee’s failure to send him for further investigative surgery that would have given him a 95% chance of survival.