A doctor who continued to drive after being convicted of drink driving and being disqualified has had his registration cancelled by the High Court.
Dr Syed Waqas Ali Bukhari’s case was one of the most serious to come before the Medical Council Fitness to Practise Committee, the court heard.
Bukhari, who worked at Cavan General Hospital between 2018 and July 2022, was suspended from practising medicine in Ireland in May 2023.
The Fitness to Practise Committee found the doctor guilty of professional misconduct and said his conduct was of “an entirely outrageous and disgraceful character”, where the doctor had demonstrated “a reckless disregard for the lives and safety of other road users and the laws of this country”.
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High Court president Judge David Barniville, confirming the cancellation sanction, said it was entirely appropriate, proper and proportionate. The doctor is also prohibited from applying to have his name restored to the Irish register of doctors for three years.
The judge noted that Bukhari appears to have returned to Pakistan in 2023, and practises there.
Opening the cancellation application before the High Court for the Medical Council this week, Sinead Taaffe of Fieldfisher solicitors said Bukhari did not engage with the process.
In an affidavit to the court, Medical Council chief executive Maria O’Kane said the case came to light when, on an annual retention form, the doctor was asked whether he had been convicted of any criminal offence, and he answered “careless drink driving without insurance”.
He later clarified that he had been charged in Cavan court “with drunk careless driving with no insurance and possession of marijuana”, and he had to do community service, and was banned from driving for at least five years.
O’Kane said the doctor subsequently disclosed to the case officer that he had eight separate driving offences, three of which related to driving while exceeding the alcohol or drug limit.
A Medical Council inquiry was held over four days regarding several allegations. These included that the doctor had driven a car in Co Cavan without insurance in June 2018 where he had been disqualified from driving for three years, having been convicted months earlier of drink driving.
The inquiry also examined allegations of drink-driving in 2019 and driving while intoxicated or under the influence of drugs in July 2021.
Bukhari was found guilty of professional misconduct in relation to his drink driving, driving without insurance, driving while disqualified and breaching certain undertakings to the High Court.
The Fitness to Practise Committee said it was satisfied that in each case Bukhari demonstrated a total disregard for the rule of law and the imposition of previous convictions on him by a court.
It noted the doctor had already been disqualified from driving and yet continued to drive without insurance − on two occasions while intoxicated and on one occasion while under the influence of drugs.
This conduct, the committee said, was of an outrageous, dishonourable and disgraceful character, and brought the profession into disrepute.
“Such behaviour is dangerous, reckless, antisocial and disgraceful when carried out by any person, but particularly so when carried out by a professional person such as a doctor,” it said.
It added: “It is, by any analysis, conduct of an entirely outrageous and disgraceful character where the doctor has demonstrated a reckless disregard for the lives and safety of other road users and the laws of this country.”
Bukhari’s conduct had a great potential for harm and there was a frightening disregard for compliance with the road traffic legislation, it further added.
Cancellation of the doctor’s registration, the committee said, was the only appropriate and proportionate sanction, and no other sanction could adequately protect the public.
Stephania Mongold
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