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Daily Record
Daily Record
National
Cheryl McEvoy & Gemma Ryder

Scots A&E doctor jailed for punching nurses handed further suspension

A Scots doctor who was jailed for attacking nurses and police officers has been suspended from practice for further 12 months.

Karen Clark was working as an accident and emergency specialist at Glasgow Royal Infirmary before an alcohol addiction made her life spiral out of control.

The medic fell from grace when she was jailed in 2015 for attacking four nurses trying to treat her at Crosshouse Hospital in Kilmarnock.

She also assaulted police officers, was found her drunk behind the wheel of her car, and in possession of cocaine.

Clark appeared before the Medical Practitioner Tribunal Service (MPTS) for a review hearing last week but has ruled that her suspension would continue for another year, Glasgow Live reports.

Clark was working as a senior registrar in the emergency department at Glasgow Royal Infirmary when her life fell apart.

She was jailed for a total of nine months at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court in April, 2015.

The jail sentence was imposed after she admitted punching 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.

The MPTS initially suspended her in 2016 and her bid to be allowed to return to medicine was thwarted last year when it was extended by seven months after a review hearing ruled her fitness to practise remained impaired.

The medic has previously detailed her fight against alcohol 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 20s 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 20s. 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 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.

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