- TV
PSYCHIATRIST 'UNFIT TO PRACTISE'
June
20 2008
Celebrity
psychiatrist Dr Raj Persaud faces being struck off
after the General Medical Council ruled that his
fitness to practise was impaired.
A GMC
panel ruled on Thursday that he had brought his
profession into disrepute after he admitted passing
off other scholars' work as his own for a book and
several articles he wrote.
The
panel, sitting in Manchester, decided that his
actions meant his fitness to practise was impaired.
It will now decide whether to strike him off the
medical register.
The
doctor, famed for his appearances on the television
chat show This Morning and on BBC Radio 4's All In
The Mind programme, admitted plagiarising the work of
other experts.
But
he had denied his actions were dishonest and liable
to bring his profession into disrepute.
Dr
Persaud was accused of plagiarising material for his
book following a Sunday Times investigation in 2006.
The
book was an anthology of the "100 most sick
people in the history of psychiatry" and was
intended to revive an interest in psychiatric
patients' case histories.
Chunks
of prose, apparently written by Dr Persaud, were
actually the work of other authors. He failed to
attribute the so-called "stolen words".
Dr
Persaud said that at the time he believed he had
sufficiently acknowledged other authors' work. He
obtained permission to quote them in his book and
included their names in the book's acknowledgements
section.
Dr
Persaud, who is a visiting Gresham Professor for
Public Understanding of Psychiatry and a fellow of
the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said: "It
wasn't my intention to pass off other people's work
as mine." He apologised repeatedly throughout
the four-day hearing for his actions.
BBC
radio: hear a Persaud plagiarism victim interviewed
