Doctor who wrote prescription for opioid painkiller for friend accused of professional misconduct

The inquiry heard the prescription was on notepaper from the Department of Psychiatry at St Luke’s General Hospital in Kilkenny, which was signed by the doctor.

A Limerick-based doctor has been accused of professional misconduct for using a prescription form from a hospital where he no longer worked to prescribe a high-strength, highly-addictive painkiller for a family friend.

The doctor appeared before a fitness-to-practise hearing of the Medical Council, where he admitted the facts of certain allegations but made no admissions on whether they constituted professional misconduct and/or poor professional performance.