GMC considers barring German GP Daniel Ubani who gave patient fatal overdose

Medical regulators today begin began a hearing to determine if a German doctor who accidentally killed a patient on his first UK shift as a GP should be barred from working in this country. Daniel Ubani, who was suspended from the General Medical Council register shortly after the incident in February 2008, administered a tenfold overdose of the painkiller diamorphine by injection to 70-year-old David Gray at his home in Manea, Cambridgeshire. Gray, who had renal colic, died soon afterwards and a coroner has said he was unlawfully killed by a doctor who was incompetent . Now a panel of the GMC in Manchester, which will also examine Ubani's treatment of two other patients, must decide whether he should be struck off. The hearing will investigate allegations that Ubani's conduct was "not at a standard to be expected of a reasonably competent general practitioner". He is not expected to attend. Gray's family last month accepted £40,000 in compensation from Ubani, Take Care Now, the company that then ran out-of-hours services in part of Cambridgeshire, and the local NHS trust. Further legal action is being taken by the family against the German and UK governments over the handling of the prosecution of Ubani, who is still allowed to work as a doctor in Germany, where he never appeared before a court. He received a nine-month suspended sentence from German authorities and ordered to pay €5,000 (£4,350) costs for causing death by negligence. This happened as UK prosecutors were preparing to execute a European arrest warrant to bring Ubani back on a possible manslaughter charge. This legal action before the European court of human rights asserts the Gray family did not have their right to justice.