A former Glasgow Royal Infirmary doctor jailed for a string of assaults on police officers and nurses has had her suspension from the profession extended by seven months.
Accident and Emergency specialist Karen Clark turned to theft and violence after spiralling into alcoholism and has served two terms behind bars.
On one occasion while off duty she violently assaulted four nurses after being taken to Crosshouse Hospital in Kilmarnock for treatment.
She punched one nurse in the head, kicked another, dug her nails into the arm of a third and pushed a fourth.
During other incidents, the hospital medic, who worked at Glasgow Royal Infirmary, attacked police officers, was found drunk behind the wheel of her car and also had possession of cocaine.
Clark, from Kilwinning, has been suspended from practising since 2016 by the Medical Practitioner Tribunal Service (MPTS) but a review hearing was held earlier this month.
It concluded her fitness to practise remains impaired and ordered her suspension be extended by a further seven months.
Her lawyer told the tribunal she accepted her fitness to practise was still impaired by her recent convictions but expressed remorse for her actions.
Clark is now engaging with the General Medical Council (GMC) and the chances of remediation were now high.
A hearing last year heard she had racked up another conviction for a police assault but Clark was later admonished by a court.
In a written ruling, MPTS panel chair David Urpeth said: "The tribunal considered that its findings were so serious that action needed to be taken, though not so serious as being fundamentally incompatible with continued registration.
"The tribunal considered that a period of suspension would meet the overarching objective as it would protect patients and the public.
"When determining the length of the suspension, the tribunal considered that a period of seven months would be sufficient to allow Dr Clark to maintain the momentum with her progress and is the shortest possible suspension to allow that."
Another review hearing will be heard towards the end of the latest suspension.
The medic has detailed her fight against booze addiction in a blog titled 'Karen Clark: a young female doctor shares her journey into recovery from addiction'.
She described how she became addicted to alcohol in her twenties and had spells in rehab after her life began to spiral out of control.
She wrote: "I am Karen. I am an alcoholic and most likely an addict.
"My substance of choice is alcohol. It has taken me to a place that I can only describe as hell.
"I am a medical doctor (emergency medicine). I discovered alcohol when I was 15.
"I can only describe taking that first sip as the most amazing euphoric feeling I thought was possible.
"My alcoholism really took off in my 20's. I functioned for a long time.
"In the past year I have been in accidents, horribly compromising situations, I have had countless hospital detoxes."
Clark was working as a senior registrar in the emergency department at Glasgow Royal Infirmary when her life began to spiral out of control.
She was jailed for a total of nine months at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court in April, 2015.
The jail sentence was imposed after she admitted assaulting the four nurses and four police officers during separate incidents in July, 2014.
She also pled guilty to two counts of threatening and abusive behaviour in April, 2014.
In November 2017 she was jailed for eight months for breaching community payback orders imposed for theft and housebreaking and a sheriff warned her she would end up dead if she didn't deal with her alcohol problem.
Clark graduated in medicine from Dundee University in 2006 and has worked at a number of other NHS hospitals in Glasgow, Dumfries and Ayrshire during her career.
