Doctor altered patient’s records
Dr Samuel McManus, 31, was working as a senior house doctor in the hospital’s department of psychiatry as part of his training at the time of the death.
The man, who had been admitted to the Mater on April 13, had been brought to the hospital’s emergency department the night before after being taken from the River Liffey following a suicide attempt. Within hours of admission to the psychiatric unit, he was found hanging in a shower. He died two weeks later.
Dr McManus had inserted the word “denied” in a space related to the possibility of the patient having suicidal thoughts. He had also altered a note recording that the patient had a “high suicide risk” to read “attempted suicide”.
A Medical Council Fitness to Practise committee has recommended that the doctor be “admonished” by the council in relation to his conduct that fell seriously short of the standards expected from a senior house doctor.
Dr McManus, who works as a locum GP, admitted he had made retrospective changes to the patient’s medical records and accepted he should not have done so. However, he denied that such alternations constituted professional misconduct.
In another case, a Sudanese doctor who contacted a patient telling her he had a Muslim friend that she might like to meet with marriage in mind was found guilty of professional misconduct. While the committee upheld a number of misconduct findings against Dr Eltayed Elkhabir, 40, who has worked here since 2001, it regarded his misbehaviour as falling within the lower end of the spectrum.
