UK psychiatrist loses license for £23,000 ($35,000) in personal calls, prescription fraud

October 11, 2011

A psychiatrist is to be struck off by the United Kingdom's General Medical Council (GMC) after it upheld charges that he ran up a £23,000 bill for personal overseas calls on National Health Service (NHS) phones and fraudulently wrote a prescription for his brother.

Dr Frederick Kakuba Kamyuka was said to have phoned Kenya and Uganda while working for Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys Foundation Trust between 2003 and 2009.

The Ugandan-educated psychiatrist was also found by the GMC panel to have forged prescriptions for his brother, an illegal immigrant, while he was working as a locum at West Park Hospital, in Darlington.

He was also found to have misled health officials about his qualifications and experience when applying for education placements at Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust in 2003.

The 61-year-old, who did not attend the hearing in Manchester, was also suspended immediately from practising as a doctor for 28 days, covering the period until he is due to be struck off.

The panel’s findings acknowledged that a reference from Dr Hashim Mohammed, dated July 8, 2003, had been submitted, stating that “(Dr Kamyuka) is an excellent clinician with sound psychiatric medical knowledge. He is well liked by colleagues”.

It also acknowledged that Dr Kamyuka wrote the fraudulent prescription in circumstances where his brother had an enduring depressive illness and no access to treatment.

However, the panel said it viewed Dr Kamyuka’s misconduct so seriously, that it had no alternative but to erase his name from the register.

The findings said: “The panel considers that Dr Kamyuka’s breach of good medical practice is so serious that it amounts to behaviour which is fundamentally incompatible with being a doctor.

“His conduct has involved a wholesale disregard for the principles set out in good medical practice. The panel is clear that he has abused his position as a medical practitioner.

“His misconduct involved persistent instances of dishonesty which were covered up and the evidence is that he still lacks adequate insight into the seriousness of his actions.

“Therefore, the panel is in no doubt that erasure (from the register) is the only appropriate and proportionate sanction in the case of Dr Kamyuka.

“This is necessary to protect patients, maintain public confidence in the profession and to declare and uphold proper standards of conduct and behaviour.”

Dr. Kamyuka is paying the outstanding telephone bill back at £350 a month. Dr. Kamyuka, who admitted fraud and was sentenced to 100 hours' community service at Teesside Crown Court last year for hte prescription forgery, has 28 days to appeal against his removal from the UK medical register.

Source: Lauren Pyrah, "Former Darlington psychiatrist ran up £23k overseas phone bill and forged prescriptions," October 8, 2011, The Advertiser.