A JUNIOR doctor found with Ecstasy and cannabis at a music festival will keep his job.

Dr Sam Nightingale, was working as a senior house officer at Wythenshawe Hospital when he was found with drugs at Glastonbury music festival.

Police found him with small quantities of the class A and C drugs during a random search in July last year and gave him a caution.

Dr Nightingale, who now works as a neurology registrar at St Mary's Hospital, in London, told a hearing he never took ecstasy and smoked only a tiny amount of the cannabis.

He said buying the drugs was a `momentary lapse of judgement' and was `entirely out of character.'

And a panel at the General Medical Council, sitting in Manchester, said that taking into account his honesty and openness about his caution, he was fit to work as a doctor.

They will decide whether he should receive an official warning about his behaviour later today but it should not affect his current work.

Dr Nightingale told the hearing he was offered cannabis on the Friday evening before the festival as he walked to meet a friend.

He decided to buy £20 of cannabis and after being offered ecstasy, he also bought £20 of that.

Dr Nightingale said: "It was an immensely stupid thing to have done and I regret it enormously. I have never used any drugs before or since.

"I was walking to meet a friend and was approached, as is not uncommon in any city, and offered cannabis.

"Normally I would ignore this and walk straight on but for some reason I foolishly and impulsively decided to stop and buy some cannabis when I was offered something else. I have no explanation but I decided to buy something else as well.

"I put them in my bag and immediately regretted this.

"I had no intention of using the ecstasy and why I didn't immediately throw this away I have asked myself so many times. One does not expect to find oneself in this kind of situation."

Dr Nightingale informed his supervisor at Wythenshawe when he returned to work and wrote to the GMC to tell them what had happened.

His supervisors have monitored him over the last year and wrote letters supporting him to the hearing.

He agreed to medical examination and tested negative for drugs. He agreed to more in-depth drug testing which would reveal if he has taken anything illegal over the last six months but this was not carried out.

Panel chairwoman Sheleen McCormack told him: "We have carefully considered the circumstances surrounding the caution and your actions thereafter.

"You are a young doctor, at the start of your career. From the beginning you have been open and honest about the caution and the circumstances surrounding it.

"You have admitted to using a small amount of cannabis at the festival.

"You have told the panel that you had not used any of the MDMA (ecstasy) and had no intention of doing so.

"You acted on impulse.

"It was an isolated incident occurring over one year ago.

"You have not taken or bought any form of illegal drugs before or since and will not do so in the future. Furthermore, it has not been suggested and no evidence has been adduced that your actions put patients at risk."

Proceeding