The High Court upheld the Medical Council’s one-year suspension of gynaecologist Dr Andrea Hermann after considering her appeal against sanction. It changed one condition for her return to practice, finding that no recognised training post was open to her.
Hermann appealed the sanction only; she did not challenge the misconduct findings. The Council had suspended her from practice for 12 months from 1 June 2010 and imposed conditions for at least three years afterwards. The conditions included a professional development plan, regular progress reviews, continuing professional development and restrictions on where she could practise.
The appeal concerned findings relating to three patients, identified in the judgment as patients 1, 2 and 8. The court described the combined misconduct as falling firmly within the most serious category.
In patient 8’s case, the court recounted delays in responding to a deteriorating condition after surgery. The Fitness to Practise Committee had found inadequate investigations and examinations, failures to act on other doctors’ advice and a delay in appropriate treatment and surgical exploration. The court said it saw no reason for Hermann not to respond promptly to calls, given that she had primary responsibility for the patient.
For patient 1, the Committee found failures to investigate and assess the patient’s worsening condition, administer antibiotics at the appropriate time and seek surgical advice. The patient developed a severe infection, suffered multi-organ failure, cardiac arrest and brain injury, and died three years later. The court said the case involved a serious shortfall from the standard expected of a consultant gynaecologist.
The Committee found that Hermann should have referred patient 2, who had a suspected cancerous tumour, to a gynaecological oncologist and lacked the experience or training to treat the condition. The patient ultimately recovered. The judge said that outcome and the risk of delay could mitigate the seriousness of this case, which he described as moderately serious, but considered it alongside the other two cases.
The judge held that the Council had shown the sanction was not disproportionate. However, the requirement that Hermann work in a recognised training post was mistaken because no such post was available to her. The court ordered that she instead work for three years under the supervision of a named consultant acceptable to the Medical Council. The one-year suspension and all other conditions remained in place.