'Bloodgate' rugby doctor allowed to practise again

Dr Wendy Chapman cut the lip of Harlequins player Tom Williams to cover up a bogus blood injury and later lied about her role in the event.

A General Medical Council (GMC) disciplinary panel ruled Dr Chapman's fitness to practise was not impaired despite her actions, which it said were not in the best interests of her patient.

She was suspended by the GMC last September and could have been struck off at the hearing in Manchester.

Panel chairman Dr Brian Alderman said Dr Chapman was guilty of "serious misconduct" but she was "severely depressed" at the time.

She would not have acted in the way she did but for her "altered state of mind", he said.

He added: "The panel has concluded that, while at the times these events occurred your fitness to practise was impaired, looking forward, your fitness to practise is currently not impaired.

"You do not pose any risk to patients or the public. The panel accepts that there is a public interest in retaining the services of a good doctor."

Dr Alderman said the panel would consider tomorrow morning whether it was appropriate to issue a warning to the doctor.

Legal representatives for Dr Chapman said she would not comment publicly on the hearing until then.

Williams's supposed injury meant a specialist goal kicker could come on to the pitch for Harlequins in the dying minutes of last year's Heineken Cup rugby union quarter-final tie against Irish side Leinster, who held on to win 6-5.

Last week, Dr Chapman told the GMC panel she was "ashamed" she gave in to pressure from Williams, who begged her in the changing rooms to conceal that, minutes earlier, he had bitten into a fake-blood capsule on the pitch.

She said she was then "horrified" that she went on to lie to a European Rugby Cup (ERC) hearing that the injury was genuine and supported the club's initial statement of innocence.

The panel accepted medical evidence which showed Dr Chapman was

suffering from depression for about two years before she cut the

player's lip on April 12 last year.

It noted she was also awaiting the results of an MRI scan to exclude the possibility of breast cancer – with a strong family history of the disease – and was involved in a work dispute at her NHS post.

Dr Alderman said it was clear that Dr Chapman's mental health was "much better now" following treatment and that she was not currently suffering from depression.

"You have said you feel better now than you have for years," he said. "The prognosis for the future is good and the panel accepts the medical opinion that you will in the future be aware if your mental state begins to deteriorate.

"Normally such misconduct could be expected to result in a finding of impaired fitness to practise. However, the circumstances of this case are wholly exceptional in that the expert medical evidence suggests that in the absence of depression you would have not acted in this way."