Last updated 19:27, Thursday, 20 November 2008

AN INVESTIGATION into a doctor who killed a Workington grandmother with a morphine overdose will be allowed to continue after the High Court this week agreed to extend his suspension.

Probe continues: Dr Michael Stevenson is still under investigation and suspended from the medical register

Dr Michael Stevenson, 56, of Bootle, near Millom, admitted the manslaughter of 57-year-old Marjorie Wright, of Lakeland View, in January 2005.

He had accidentally given her a 30mg dose of the painkiller diamorphine, which was six times the normal amount.

He was given a 15-month suspended jail sentence in April 2007.

But he continues to face a General Medical Council investigation in relation to the death and concerns surrounding 12 other patients, all of whom lived in West Cumbria.

His lawyers on Tuesday asked High Court judge Mr Justice Cranston to reject a GMC application to extend an interim suspension of his registration, but they had their arguments rejected.

Barrister Andrew Hockton told the court that Stevenson had already made it clear he did not want to return to his profession and would voluntarily erase his name from the medical register.

But Stephen Brassington, for the GMC, argued that a continued suspension was required to allow the investigation into his conduct to continue.

It was in the obvious public interest for the investigation to be allowed to continue, he said.

Stevenson was initially suspended after the death of Mrs Wright following her complaint of a severe migraine.

Stevenson had been warned the year before about over-working, and the court heard that he had responded to his own depression by obsessive working.

He had been working for CueDoc, Cumbria’s out of hours service, and was on sabbatical from his practice at the Seascale Health Centre.

Following his initial suspension, concerns relating to a number of other patients came to light, which the GMC decided to investigate.

It was thought that injections he gave to patients may have accelerated their deaths.

Although an expert’s assessment was mostly favourable of the doctor’s patient care, issues were raised about his prescription of diamorphine.

Mr Brassington asked for a one-year extension of the interim suspension, which runs out next month, but the judge said a six-month order was appropriate.

He referred to the effect which a prolonged investigation had on Stevenson’s health.

“It seems to me, given the manslaughter conviction and the further cases, there needs to be, in the public interest, a continued inquiry,” he added.