An alcoholic doctor convicted of a string of violent attacks, burglaries and drug possession has finally been suspended.
Dr. Karen Clark, now in her forties, was banned from working as a doctor in Britain this month after a catalog of crimes including attacking police officers and nurses.
A panel of the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) said she should be struck off the register of doctors – officially ending her career – because there was no evidence she had changed her behaviour.
The medic was suspended despite her plea at an earlier hearing for another chance to show “how much medicine is for me.”
Dr.’s regulatory problems Clark started in 2012, when she worked as an A&E doctor at NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde’s Glasgow Royal Infirmary.
Dr. Karen Clark has been struck off the UK medical register after a string of offenses dating back to 2012
The doctor has previously detailed how she battled alcohol addiction and previously advocated for another chance ‘to show how much medicine is for me’
Pictured: Glasgow Royal Infirmary, where Dr Clark previously worked in the emergency department
The panel heard how she drank too much alcohol that year before driving to a car park near her home and falling asleep in the car.
She was then woken up by police and asked to take a breath test, but refused to do so.
Later that year she was fined £400, disqualified from driving and referred to the medical regulator.
In 2015, a year after she last worked as a doctor, she was jailed for nine months for attacking four police officers and four nurses in two incidents just a week apart.
Just months after her release in 2016, she was convicted of two burglaries, one of which was at a hair salon.
In cataloging its offences, the MPTS also noted two separate attacks on police officers, one of which occurred as recently as 2019.
The medic kicked one officer in the leg and hit another officer in the head.
The panel also detailed that Dr. Clark had convictions for threatening behaviour, theft, vandalism and possession of a class A drug.
Class A drugs are the most dangerous illicit substances and include heroin, ecstasy, LSD and meth.
Dr. Clark had admitted to all of these offenses.
The MPTS ruling followed a hearing in May this year, in which Dr Clark was given a final chance to remain on the medical register.
At the time, she was given a six-month suspension, one of several she had received since she last worked as a doctor in 2014.
But she received nine suggestions from the MPTS on how she could turn things around and avoid being struck off.
She was awarded this partly because she had recently been the victim of an attack in her home, which the MPTS panel said may have affected her progress.
In a statement provided at the time, Dr. Clark wrote, “I sincerely hope that I will be given one more, even final, opportunity to show how much medicine means to me and that I will do everything I can to recover and remain in recovery.”
Dr. Clark, who graduated from the University of Dundee in 2006, had shared details of her battle with alcoholism in the past.
However, the panel investigating her suspension found that she had implemented only one of their nine recommendations.
In its ruling, the MPTS noted: ‘The Tribunal was of the opinion that Dr. Clark had been given numerous opportunities to demonstrate insight by the MPTS tribunals.
“However, after more than seven years, Dr. Clark has failed to address her problems.”
They added that the doctor was still at risk of repeating the conduct that led to her convictions and that her fitness to practice was therefore affected.
Britain’s medical regulator, the General Medical Council, which referred Dr Clark’s case to the MPTS, said the doctor’s conduct was ‘fundamentally incompatible with continued registration’.
Dr. Karen Clark, now in her 40s, was banned from working as a doctor after a string of convictions, including assaulting police officers and nurses
The doctor was given a chance in May to prevent medical regulators from giving her nine suggestions to show she was committed to change
But another tribunal held this month ruled that the doctor had completed only one of nine proposed changes
In May, Dr. Clark spoke of the pain of going through regulatory processes, saying, “The feeling of being a disappointment, of never really getting there, back into medicine, out of the mess of the recent past and out of the mess I have made ‘
Dr. Clark’s representative argued for a new suspension period, claiming that the public was equally protected by both rulings.
But the MPTS was not convinced, stating that ‘expungement was the only sanction that would be sufficient’ to maintain public confidence in the profession and uphold the standards expected of doctors.
The ruling cited a “continued lack of understanding of the seriousness of her actions and the absence of any evidence from Dr. Clark, particularly in relation to her recovery, despite repeated opportunities.”
Dr. Clark did not make any new statements as part of the latest ruling.
However, in May she spoke about how challenging it was to face multiple procedures from the medical regulator.
“I can honestly say this is what has triggered me the most over the last few years,” she wrote.
“The feeling of being a disappointment, of never really getting there, back to medicine, out of the mess of the recent past and out of the mess I’ve made.”
Dr. Clark has the right to appeal if he is disbarred.
If she chooses to do so, her suspension as a doctor will remain in place.
After deletion, a person can only be included in the register again after five years.