A Scots doctor has been suspended for a year by a medical watchdog after attacking paramedics, despite being given a second chance at her career following a catalogue of alcohol-fuelled meltdowns. Haematology expert Dr Roisin Hamilton, of Glasgow, has been deemed unfit to practise just three years after she promised a disciplinary tribunal she'd learned her lesson.
The Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) has ruled that her fitness to practise has been impaired after it came to light that Dr Hamilton was convicted at Glasgow Sheriff Court of attacking paramedics in July 2020, as well as as a drink driving conviction in Northern Ireland in October 2021, where she also resisted arrest.
She had previously been reprimanded by the watchdog following assaults, which included throwing hot coffee at staff in Glasgow Airport and biting a police officer's finger.
Dr Hamilton stopping practising in 2015, after facing issues earlier that year. Staff at a hospital saw her approaching her car while drunk and persuaded her to hand over the keys, but she became aggressive when police arrived and she bit an officer’s finger as he asked her to take a breath test. She was fined and handed a driving ban.
The doctor was arrested again the following year after being seen stumbling in the duty free area at Glasgow Airport while waiting for a flight to Northern Ireland, where she was booked in to attend a rehabilitation centre. Airport staff went to offer her assistance but she vomited on the floor and became aggressive – throwing scalding coffee on to the foot of an airport employee.
Previously, police were called when Dr Hamilton assaulted her husband, who had reported that she had attempted to get back into her home after he threw her out for being drunk. In 2018, she was also arrested for drink driving in Northern Ireland and being drunk and disorderly.
In 2019, the mum-of-two told a tribunal that she was “mortified and ashamed” of her actions and said the offences “did not represent her as a person”. She convinced the watchdog to give her a second chance.
However, last Friday, October 14, the MPTS imposed an immediate order of suspension on the medic, following her latest convictions. The ordered that a review hearing should take place to examine her fitness to practise before the 12-month suspension expires.
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