Vora Snehlata Jayantilal 2017737 19-02-2013.pdf - General ...

19affect their care or safety."Principle 3:"Show respect for others. Showing respect for others is essential in forming andmaintaining professional relationships....3.2 Treat people politely and considerately."We are entirely satisfied that the findings we have made amount to misconduct. It issuggested that the misconduct was not so serious as to justify a finding of impairment. Wedisagree. Doubtless there will be occasions when a pharmacist might, for whatever reason,momentarily lose sight of the need to behave professionally. Here the matters went far farbeyond that. Miss Vora made a deliberate decision to withhold an item of medicationprescribed by a doctor and paid for by the patient because she placed her commercialinterests above the ethics of her profession. In our view this alone amounts to seriousmisconduct. The matter goes further than this because, despite the intervention of Mrs R'shusband, and although given the opportunity to reflect overnight and retreat the next day,Miss Vora resolutely maintained her position and refused to give the medication back toMrs R even though she knew that what she was doing was wrong. In short, she wanted hermoney. Her persistent refusal was even in the knowledge that the patient would complainto the General Pharmaceutical Council. In addition, she was abusive and aggressive.We have considered the examples given by Lady Justice Smith in the Shipman InquiryReport as to why a decision-maker might conclude that fitness to practice is impaired (see