Indian doctor in UK gets three months suspension for plagiarism

LONDON: Psychiatrist and broadcaster Raj Persaud has been suspended for three months from practising medicine after he was found guilty by the General Medical Council (GMC) of dishonestly plagiarising the work of colleagues in a manner that brought his profession into disrepute.

He showed no emotion as Anthony Morgan, chairman of the General Medical Council's fitness-to-practise panel, told him that his plagiarism was dishonest but not serious enough to warrant the end of his professional career.

The panel ruled that Dr Persaud had brought his profession into disrepute. He admitted passing off other scholars' work in his book, "From the Edge of the Couch", and other published work.

Dr Persaud, 45, who works as a consultant psychiatrist for the South London and Maudsley NHS Trust, came to prominence with media work on mental health issues, The Times reported.

He has appeared regularly on the TV show This Morning and on the BBC Radio 4 programme "All In The Mind".

He apologised repeatedly during the hearing in Manchester and had already given assurances that he will retreat from much of his journalistic work.

Dr Morgan told him that the panel took into account that there had been no patient harm, that his plagiarism was not financially motivated, that it did not relate to research fraud and that it was unlikely to be repeated.

He said: "The panel has determined that a three-month period of suspension is sufficient to send out a signal to you, the profession and the public that plagiarism is unacceptable behaviour."

The Sunday Times accused Dr Persaud of plagiarising material for his book after an investigation in 2006.