‘Britain’s worst GP’ – who bit a police officer and was caught drink-driving TWICE – avoids being suspended after arguing she could make a ‘positive contribution’ to ailing service

A GP convicted of a string of alcohol offenses – including one where she bit a police officer – has avoided a ban, MailOnline can reveal.

Doctor Jane Hornsey, in her 60s, was caught drink-driving in 2018. She escaped jail but was banned from getting behind the wheel for three years and fined £120.

Supervisors wanted to suspend her, given the medic’s history of violations and the severity of the latest incident.

But she avoided being suspended after arguing that she had already been punished by the court and “did not deserve a new sanction.”

Instead, Dr Hornsey, previously dubbed ‘Britain’s worst GP’ and previously working in the Yorkshire town of Keighley according to local press, was given a number of conditions to adhere to.

In a review of these circumstances last week, Dr. Hornsey said she could make a ‘positive contribution’ to Britain’s overburdened GP services.

“She also feels she has a useful role to play,” documents filed with the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) show.

‘She said she has spoken to fellow GPs about the tensions and difficulties GPs are currently facing.’

The Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) gave her a new set of conditions to comply with over the next 12 months.

This includes, among other things, that Dr. Hornsey, a mother of four who qualified in 1982, must complete an approved GP program to ensure her clinical skills are up to date.

Other conditions include a limit on the number of hours she can work and that she must be supervised at all times while working.

Dr. Hornsey, previously dubbed ‘Britain’s worst GP’, and according to local press previously worked at North Street Surgery in Keighley

But the MPTS added that the decision was “balanced” between conditions and a full suspension. Dr.’s condition Hornsey will be reviewed in a year’s time.

She has not worked as a GP since 2016 and since 2014 there have been restrictions on how she could work following a drunk and disorderly conviction.

An ‘intoxicated’ Dr Hornsey entered an A&E department last year and launched abusive ‘rants’ at staff and police. She also frightened the public by “entering other patients’ cubicles and declaring yourself a doctor.”

Dr. Hornsey herself called her behavior “disgraceful” and said she was “determined not to drink again.”

At the time, the MPTS issued her with a three-year practice order, noting that anything beyond that would be ‘disproportionate’.

Dr. Hornsey’s first drink-related offense occurred in 2009, during an incident involving a violent altercation with a police officer.

On October 18 that year, she crashed her car and was seen “obviously drunk and wandering around.”

Following a call from a passing motorist, police arrived on the scene, but when she asked Dr. Hornsey to take a breath test, she refused. When an officer tried to stop her, she bit him on the forearm.

Bradford Crown Court heard in 2010 how the police officer was forced to hit her twice on the head and use capsicum spray to eventually restrain her.

It was also noted that the officer even required hospital care for his injuries.

Dr. Hornsey was convicted of both assault and driving under the influence in connection with the incident.

Her most recent conviction related to an incident on July 20, 2018

She arrived at a Tesco in Skipton, North Yorkshire and bought a bottle of wine. Dr. However, Hornsey smelled so strongly of alcohol that the staff, noticing that she had arrived by car, decided to call the police.

When questioned by officers, she admitted to drinking two to three glasses of wine after an argument with her mother before driving to the store. A blood sample taken at the time later showed that she was almost twice over the legal limit.

She was subsequently charged and convicted of driving under the influence.

Subsequent MPTS regulatory proceedings took place in 2020, with the tribunal hearing that the doctor ‘could easily have killed someone while driving’.

The tribunal said at the time that Dr Hornsey ‘did not appear to appreciate the seriousness of her actions’ and that she became ‘irritated and hostile’ during questioning and also ‘expressed no apology or remorse’.

In the final round with the MPTS, Dr. Hornsey said she had not sought work since the 2020 tribunal due to Covid and personal reasons heard behind closed doors.

But she said she still wanted to work as a GP, saying that “being a doctor is part of her identity.”

GP workforce data, shown in this graph up to May 2023, shows there are 27,200 fully qualified GPs in England. This is a decrease compared to the 27,627 a year earlier. The GP number peaked in March 2016 at 29,537

The tribunal noted that Dr Hornsey had still not apologized for the events leading to her conviction in 2018, and instead ‘appeared to attribute responsibility for her actions to NHS England’.

They also noted that, with the exception of a 10-month period of part-time work in 2016, she had not worked as a doctor since 2009, and that her clinical skills may have deteriorated during that time, something they said she did not seem to appreciate .

NHS data shows there were 27,302 fully qualified GPs practicing in England in September this year, the latest figures available.

This is 2,000 fewer than the number registered in the same month in 2018.

GPs themselves indicate that they are overwhelmed by patient demand.

Some GPs are now responsible for 2,600 patients each in some areas, compared to an average of 1,900 in 2016.

According to recommendations from the BMA and the European Union of General Practitioners, GPs are now allowed to make no more than 25 appointments per day to ensure safe care.

But some doctors are reportedly having to cram nearly 60 patients a day.

Ministers have also quietly abandoned a promise to hire a further 6,000 GPs, which was a key part of Boris Johnson’s election-winning manifesto.

Patient satisfaction with GP services has also fallen to its lowest level ever as a result of the appointments crisis.