A troubled Renfrew doctor will be allowed to practice again after a tribunal heard how he wished he could "turn back time".
Medical watchdogs decided that GP Mohamad Khan's 20-month suspension was "sufficient to mark the public interest" when they allowed him to return to work following a recent tribunal.
Dr Khan had notched up a string of drink-related driving convictions that landed him behind bars in July 2019.
Don't miss the latest headlines from around Renfrewshire. Sign up to our newsletters here.
He was handed a 175-day prison sentence and banned from driving for 54 months after the last of his five convictions, which took place between 1998 and 2019.
Khan was rumbled on April 9 2019, when police officers come across a stationery vehicle sitting in a bus stop on a dual carriageway.
The doctor was found smelling of alcohol and was described as "slow to respond when being questioned", his speech was "slurred" and he was "unsteady on his feet" when officers asked him to get out of the vehicle.
He was charged with drink-driving after a breath specimen recorded 108 micrograms of alcohol - the legal limit is just 22 micrograms.
Khan, who graduated from the University of London in 1988, reported himself to the General Medical Council on July 3, 2019 over his conduct.
The medic trained at a hospital in Essex before moving into general practice, working as a GP in Cumbria before moving to Glasgow.
He remained in the city until 2000 before returning to Essex.
The doctor returned to Scotland in 2003, working as a locum until 2009, when he opened his own practice in Renfrew.
He has not worked as a doctor since 2014 and was suspended from practising for a year in 2020 by watchdog the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS), after they found his fitness to practise was impaired by reason of his convictions, saying the move was necessary to "mark the seriousness of Dr Khan’s conduct, to maintain public confidence in the profession and to declare and uphold proper standards of behaviour."
The report added: "The seriousness of Dr Khan’s behaviour involved criminality that fell significantly below the standards expected of a doctor."
Tribunal chiefs also felt the suspension was "necessary" given the GP's "level of insight and remediation" and to allow him to "reflect on his conduct".
A further tribunal in September 2021 found it "concerning" that Dr Khan "had decided not to attend two of his court hearings as he felt that this would reduce publicity and so would minimise the impact on the profession".
The tribunal found the "insight was flawed" and "in fact had the potential to have the opposite effect".
They branded his insight "incomplete" and "considered that it could not rule out the risk of repetition" and found that Khan's fitness to practise was still impaired.
Now a tribunal has found that his judgement is no longer impaired, saying it was "satisfied that he had developed further insight since the 2021 hearing, particularly in relation to the effect his behaviour had on public confidence in the medical profession."
Dr Khan said he "is ready to go back to work but accepted that he would need to be monitored and is not ready to return to unrestricted practise", the tribunal highlighted.
It gave the green light for him to return to work on a supervised basis, adding: "Further, the tribunal was satisfied that Dr Khan’s 20-month suspension was sufficient to mark the public interest.
It concluded that "the tribunal was satisfied that Dr Khan’s 20-month suspension was sufficient to mark the public interest.
"It concluded that public confidence in the medical profession and the need to uphold proper professional standards had been met by Dr Khan’s suspension."
They found that his fitness to practise was no longer impaired by reason of his conviction.
In a statement to the MPTS, Dr Khan said: "I would like to address the serious damage I have done to the reputation of the profession.
"I am deeply sorry for this and will remain so for the rest of my life.
"We would all like to turn back time at some point in our lives but this, for me, would be one of the most important reasons."
The doctor as also said to have "candidly acknowledged that there is further work to be done before he feels confident that he could return to work unsupervised.
"He accepted that, at present, he would not be fit to return to unrestricted practise and would need to be monitored."
Download the FREE Renfrewshire Live app now for all the latest news, features and sport in your area. Available on both Android and Apple. Download here: smarturl.it/RenfrewLiveSocial
