Depression ‘impaired’ Bloodgate doctor’s judgment

DEPRESSION clouded the judgment of the Bloodgate matchday doctor who cut the lip of a rugby player to cover up his bogus injury, a panel heard yesterday.

Lawyers for Dr Wendy Chapman argued her fitness to practise is not impaired because she had since controlled her ongoing condition which they say led to her role in the scandal.

Her state of mind at the time meant she gave into pressure from Harlequins player Tom Williams who wanted to conceal that minutes earlier he had bitten into a fake-blood capsule, it was argued.

She was then said to have “sleepwalked” through a subsequent rugby disciplinary hearing where she could not even remember giving evidence to back up the club’s false assertion that the blood injury was real.

Williams’ supposed injury meant specialist goal kicker Nick Evans could come on to the pitch for Harlequins in the dying minutes of last April’s Heineken Cup quarter-final tie against Leinster, who held on to win 6-5.

Dr Chapman wants her interim suspension from medicine lifted by the General Medical Council who accuse her of bringing the profession into disrepute and being dishonest.

Mary O’Rourke QC, counsel for the doctor, told the panel that it was “extremely probable” it would find she was guilty of misconduct but “that is not where the issue is”.

“My submissions are that even if you find misconduct, this is going to be a case where you can say fitness to practise is not impaired,” she said.

“The overwhelming context of her behaviour was her depression. She was feeling rubbish for a number of months and at the time. Her judgment was impaired then.”

The hearing has been told that Dr Chapman was suffering from a “major depressive disorder” even before Bloodgate, which the GMC has not challenged.

Added to that was the stresses of work and the “unique situation” where a player asked her to harm him rather than heal him, she said.

“But for the medical matters I would not be making the submissions, I say it is the key to culpability,” she said. “If you accept that the depression has been resolved and the conduct is unlikely to reoccur then that is highly significant when judging if her fitness to practise is impaired.”

Ms O’Rourke said Dr Chapman was still on medication for her depression but that various psychiatric experts had ruled she now had coping mechanisms in place to deal with it and she was fit to return as a doctor. She is currently recovering from breast cancer surgery which took place about five weeks ago.

Michael Hayton, counsel for the GMC, had questioned whether the lip cut could be treated as an isolated incident following her later deception at the ERC hearing.

Ms O’Rourke countered that both matters should be treated as one incident as one naturally led to the other.

The barrister said ruling Dr Chapman’s fitness to practise is not impaired would not mean she “walks away” as the panel could still give a warning as to her future professional conduct.

If her fitness to practise is found to be impaired, the panel will then consider what, if any, sanctions should be imposed, which could include being struck off. The panel will reconvene at 3pm on Tuesday.