Britain's General Medical Council has reprimanded an Indian doctor who left the scene of an accident while driving without a valid licence.
Dr Arunkumar Ganesan's reprimand is the second time this month that an Indian medic has fallen foul of the GMC's Professional Conduct Committee.
Dr Ganesan was convicted at Durham Magistrates Court last year and fined £500 with £35 costs after admitting driving without due care and attention, failing to stop after an accident and driving with an expired Indian licence in his possession.
"The behaviour for which you were convicted constitutes a departure from the standards expected of a member of the medical profession," the committee says in its ruling. "High professional standards and the good reputation of the profession must be maintained."
"As a doctor, it is essential that you observe proper standards of personal behaviour at all times. The committee has already expressed concern about the fact that you did not stop at the scene of the accident or attempt to render assistance to the other person, and that you pleaded guilty to driving a motor vehicle while not in possession of a valid driving licence. You have given your reason for not stopping at the scene as being in a state of shock and panic.
"You have also stated that you contacted the emergency services as soon as you arrived at your home, which was nearby. The committee would like to emphasise that although they accept your explanation, this in no way detracts from your professional obligations, especially having regard to the fact that at the relevant time you were employed as a doctor in the orthopaedics and trauma department of the local hospital."
Last week medical registrar Mahesh Goel was suspended for 12 months by the GMC for his role in an operation that resulted in the wrong kidney being removed from a 69-year-old patient who died shortly afterwards.
Goel was part of a two-man team from the Prince Philip Hospital in Llanelli, South Wales, which operated on Korean War veteran John Graham Reeves.
Goel and another surgeon, John Gethin Roberts, who has also been suspended, removed Reeves' good left kidney instead of his chronically diseased right one. He died on March 1, five weeks after the operation, despite two more procedures and emergency dialysis.
Both Roberts and Goel subsequently denied their actions amounted to serious professional misconduct, but the chairwoman of the GMC committee, Dr Chitra Bharucha, said Goel had made an incorrect entry in the urology department diary, which incorrectly indicated that the operation was to the left kidney.
