A DOCTOR who covered up a patient overdose and lived with her guilty secret for nearly 20 years finally came clean by writing a letter of confession.

Stockport GP Rosalind Deering was a junior doctor at a hospital in Northern Ireland in 1985 when she gave too much sedative to kidney patient Doreen Gordon.

Mrs Gordon, 27, died an hour later but Dr Deering changed the medical notes to cover up her error and didn't tell police or the coroner what she had done.

She went on to become a trusted family GP and for the past ten years has been practising at the Springfield Medical Centre in Hazel Grove but the devout Christian could not live with her deception.

She wrote a letter confessing her cover-up to Mrs Gordon's family solicitors and referred herself to the doctor's watchdog, the General Medical Council.

And the GMC's disciplinary panel sitting in Manchester has now decided to allow her to continue treating patients after hearing she was an "outstanding" doctor.

She has been given a written warning but escaped a ban in what was described as an "exceptional case."

Polly Clarke, who chaired the hearing, said: "Acts of dishonesty are very serious. The seriousness of your misconduct, particularly that involving dishonesty, would virtually always cause a panel to find a doctor's fitness to practise to be impaired.

"There are distinguishing, powerful and very unusual elements of your case that caused us to reflect extensively. It was your desire to do the right thing, to uphold proper standards of conduct and behaviour that caused you to write to the solicitors of the family.

Exceptional act 

"We consider this is an exceptional act because there would have otherwise been no reason for anyone ever to question those events of 1985. In writing to the solicitors you knew that there was a probability that you were going to jeopardise your liberty, your career, your good standing and your family.

"Your actions described above indicate particular insight into your role in the events and what the GMC expects of medical practitioners."

Dr Deering worked as a junior doctor at Waveney Hospital, between August 1984 and July 1985. She then worked as a GP in Northern Ireland from 1988 to 1993, and took up a part-time post at Springfield in 1996, becoming a partner in 1999.

Mrs Gordon, a married mother-of-one from Ballymena, was suffering kidney failure when she was admitted to Waveney Hospital on April 9 1985.

Dr Deering was working the night shift and when nurses asked her to give Mrs Gordon something to help her sleep at 5am she didn't check the patient's medical records, or ask advice about the sedative, which she hadn't used before.

The doctor then gave her at least 12mg of the drug and nurses called her again an hour later to say the patient had died.

Immediately after Mrs Gordon's death Dr Deering looked at the patients' notes and found she had previously been given 1mg of the drug to help her sleep so she changed her own entry to make it look as if she had given her a smaller dose.

Dr Deering was questioned by police and later gave evidence at an inquest but didn't tell anyone what she had done.

An expert witness told the GMC hearing 12mg was an "excessive dose" but could not say that it would have caused Mrs Gordon's death. The panel also heard that junior doctors in the 1980s worked extremely long hours, without breaks and often there were no consultants available to provide advice.

A string of fellow Stockport GPs told the panel that Dr Dearing was considered a model GP. They gave her an official written warning which will sit on her file for the next five years.

Dr Jeffrey Mortimer, her former practice partner who retired in 2005, said: "I have never heard any patient make any critical statement about Dr Deering on any occasion since she has been a member of the practice.

"I have never had any reason to doubt her as anything but as honest as it is possible to strive to be. She is competent and caring, it is her vocation."

Dr Deering said: "I am relieved that this matter is now over and my fitness to practice has been found not to be impaired. Throughout the GMC's investigation I cooperated fully and my clinical competence has never been called into question.

"I look forward attending to my patients and continuing to provide the best possible care for them. I would like to extend my gratitude to my colleagues, patients, family and friends for their support."

The Police Service of Northern Ireland launched an investigation into Mrs Gordon's death in November 2001, when Dr Deering's letter of confession came to light and the Public Prosecution Service decided not bring any charges in January 2006. A PPS spokesman said this was because there was insufficient evidence.