Psychiatrist faces 12 allegations of professional misconduct
Seán McCárthaigh
A psychiatrist got a job working with children and teenagers in Donegal at a time he had given an undertaking to the Medical Council not to practise in Ireland due to concerns over his possible misuse of controlled drugs, a medical inquiry has heard.
Syed Zubair is accused of professional misconduct over failing to disclose when he took up a post as a registrar with Donegal Mental Health Services in September 2018 that he had already an agreement with the Medical Council that he would not practise medicine in the Republic.
The undertaking not to practise had been given by Dr Zubair in May 2016 after the Medical Council was notified of concerns that patients might be at risk because the psychiatrist was allegedly intoxicated or under the influence of substances while working in the acute psychiatric unit of Roscommon University Hospital.
The 53-year-old from Pakistan did not attend a fitness-to-practise inquiry held by the Medical Council which opened on Wednesday.
It is understood he is currently based back in Pakistan, although he has previously expressed a desire to return to Ireland to work.
The psychiatrist, who qualified as a doctor in 1996 and first registered to practise in Ireland in 2007, is facing a total of 12 allegations of professional misconduct.
Several allegations relate to his application for a junior doctor post with Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) in Donegal in September 2018 and declarations made after securing the job as well as his failure to comply with the undertaking given to the Medical Council not to practise medicine.
Dr Zubair worked with CAMHS in Donegal between March 20th, 2019 and July 5th, 2019.
The psychiatrist also faces five allegations that he wrote prescriptions for various drugs on stationery from Donegal Mental Health Services without permission under the name of another patient which he presented at various pharmacies in Letterkenny, Co Donegal, in 2019, including on dates after he had ceased working with CAMHS.
He is also accused of providing misleading and untrue information to the Medical Council when he informed the regulatory body in October 2019 that he was “stuck in Pakistan” and had “not been offered any promising job offer.”
Similarly, the Medical Council claims that Dr Zubair declared in his annual retention application form for registration in Ireland in July 2019 that he had not given any undertaking which would restrict his licence to practise which he knew was untrue.
Another allegation relates to a claim that Dr Zubair inappropriately and dishonestly requested a letter from a Roscommon GP, John Keenan, in December 2015 to state that he had prescribed Diazepam for the psychiatrist when he had not done so.
Counsel for the Medical Council, Eoghan O’Sullivan BL, told the fitness-to-practise committee that Dr Zubair had initially engaged with the Medical Council over complaints made against him in 2019 but had no further contact with the regulatory body since 2021.
The former clinical director of Donegal Mental Health Services, Clifford Haley, gave evidence that he was contacted by a pharmacist in Letterkenny shortly after Dr Zubair had ceased working with CAMHS about prescriptions that bore his number and signature.
A pharmacist with Boots Pharmacy in Letterkenny, Róisín McCaffrey, told the inquiry that she became suspicious about the prescription as the customer had appeared agitated while waiting for it and discovered from a colleague that he had behaved similarly previously.
Ms McCaffrey said the customer became “fairly aggressive” and stated he was a doctor when she queried the prescription.
Dr Haley said he could not find any details about the patient for whom the medicines had been prescribed.
He told the inquiry that the prescription was for a benzodiazepine which he noted “should primarily be for short-term use and very carefully monitored because obviously it’s addictive.”
In reply to questions from Mr O’Sullivan, he said Donegal Mental Health Services had not been able to locate the psychiatrist about the matter.
Dr Haley said he had made a complaint about Dr Zubair to the Medical Council because it was the first time in 25 years that a doctor had their prescriptions queried in such a manner by a pharmacist and he felt it was “not really proper behaviour” for a registered practitioner.
The witness said he had also written to the local superintendent in Letterkenny garda station because he was concerned about possible criminal behaviour by Dr Zubair but he “never heard back from the guards.”
In reply to a question from the chairperson of the fitness-to-practise committee, Marie Culliton, Dr Haley said it would have been routine procedure for checks to have been carried out on the qualifications and registration of any doctor before being called to a job interview.
“Nothing in the routine process of application showed any problem,” he told the inquiry.
Dr Haley said any restrictions on a doctor’s practice would have been followed up “100 per cent” if they had become aware of anything.
He said he presumed Donegal Mental Health Services “had faith in the process” and that Dr Zubair would not have been registered “if he hadn’t met the criteria.”
However, the Medical Council’s head of registration, Ann Curran, told the hearing that to the best of her knowledge she did not believe the register at the time would have recorded details about a doctor’s voluntary undertaking not to practise.
The inquiry was adjourned and will resume on Thursday.
In November 2019, a High Court judge expressed serious concern about defective procedures within the Medical Council which had resulted in Dr Zubair being employed by Donegal Mental Health Service without knowing he was precluded from practising medicine at the time.
Mr Justice Peter Kelly said no prospective patient or employer of a doctor who, like Dr Zubair, had given an undertaking to the Medical Council not to practise medicine, had any way of finding out from the regulatory body’s website that such an undertaking was in place.
