A family doctor has been struck off for perverting the course of justice over the death of an elderly woman in a house fire.
Dr Nigel Palmer, 45, was given a suspended jail sentence after an inquest into the death of 82-year-old Eileen Gill was halted in Sheffield last year because of his lies.
Dr Palmer, who worked at the Park Grove surgery in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, was given a nine-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, at Sheffield Crown Court last November.
The General Medical Council (GMC) was told that Dr Palmer reported concern for Ms Gill’s welfare to social services, but he denied receiving its response, made misleading medical notes and did not inform Ms Gill’s family.
Dr Palmer told the hearing that he accepted that what he did was completely wrong, and that he regretted his actions.
The GMC fitness to practise panel said it did not accept that his actions were an isolated instance of dishonesty in a “moment of madness”.
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