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Doc’s deathbed virus outburst
28/ 6/2004
A GP is facing disciplinary action after telling a man to stop
kissing and cuddling his wife 30 minutes after she died from cancer
in case he got a virus.
Dr Usha Kumari Naqvi appeared before the General Medical Council
accused of serious professional misconduct after a complaint from
two district nurses who were in the room.
But the widower, known as Mr X, told the hearing that he was not
bothered by the 64-year-old GP's remark.
Dr Naqvi, who practices at Heaton Grange Cottage, Chorley New Road
in Bolton, Greater Manchester, is also facing a number of other
charges.
She is accused of cutting off the food supply of a bed-bound
pensioner suffering from Alzheimer's and Parkinson's Disease
telling the patient's wife to "go to the bloody chemists and pay
for it" and also breaking drug storage rules and keeping inadequate
medical records.
A hearing was told that two district nurses made a complaint after
hearing the doctor order the grieving husband off the bed on 6
October 2000. Patricia Bilsbury, community staff nurse, said: "Mr X
was lying on the bed covering his wife and he was very distressed.
He was very much in love with his wife. He was cuddling and was
kissing her.
"Dr Naqvi made some comment that he could catch viruses by lying on
the same bed as his wife. He replied that he had been lying on the
bed for weeks while she had been ill and he would continue to do
so.
"The patient did not have any viruses. She had been discharged from
hospital a month earlier. I felt for Mr X - it was inappropriate
and it was distressing at the time."
Another nurse, Jean Cooper described Dr Naqvi's comments as "sharp"
and said she was surprised when the GP then took morphine capsules
prescribed for dead woman away when they should have been
destroyed.
The GP contacted a pharmacist to destroy the drugs after six days,
but when the pharmacist arrived he claimed that she'd broken UK
drug rules by keeping the morphine in the boot of her car.
The GP argued that she had kept it in a locker for most of that
time because the law states medicine should be kept for seven days
in case a death is subject to an inquest.
The complaints from the nurses came after Dr Naqvi complained about
them wanting to dispose of the drugs to the Nursing Medical
Council. Dr Naqvi's complaint was never upheld.
Mr X, who has now remarried and has a two-year-old baby, described
Dr Naqvi - his GP for 22 years- as "brilliant". He said: "She said
it out of concern for my welfare. She was a bit upset because my
wife had died but she was very pleasant about it. She did not say
anything personal to upset me."
Dr Naqvi told the General Medical Council that she was genuinely
concerned that Mr X would get E.coli. She said: "There was a
discussion between me and the haematologist and he said that she
(Mrs X) had virulent E.coli and viruses. She said that viral
investigations were being carried out."
The council heard another allegation from another patient's
relative that Dr Naqvi cut off the food his food supply. The wife
of the 80-year-old patient- known as Mrs V- was told to pay for his
weekly £42 food supply out of her pension. Mrs V said to the
hearing: "She told me to go to the bloody chemists and pay for it
myself. I was very upset about it. He could not have lived without
the feed but she was very arrogant and rude to me."
Expert witness Dr Stephen Hicks from the NHS Modernisation Agency
condemned the GP's actions as "unethical" as Mrs V only had a day's
food supply left before a dietician gave her emergency
supplies.
But Dr Naqvi maintains that she wrote another prescription the next
day after checking with the health authority. She said: "The
dietician said she had given her (Mrs V) enough food and she wanted
to change her doctor. If she wanted to change her doctor and does
not want to come and see me what could I do? I could have been a
lot more sympathetic and I could have delivered it (the
prescription) myself if I felt it necessary."
The GP has denied serious professional misconduct and The GMC is
due to reach a final decision in October 11.
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