TV shrink 'unfit to practice'
2008-06-20 16:14
London - Psychiatrist and broadcaster Dr
Raj Persaud has been found unfit to practice after he admitted
plagiarising other people's work, the General Medical Council
said on Friday.
He admitted copying four pieces of work for his 2003 book
From the Edge of the Couch during a GMC disciplinary hearing
in Manchester this week.
The former presenter of the BBC Radio 4 programme All in
the Mind also admitted copying passages from two other pieces
of work in a series of newspaper articles and journals.
He had denied dishonesty, but the GMC said he must have
known what he was doing.
In a written ruling, it said Persaud's
actions were liable to bring the profession into disrepute.
He had claimed he was in a confused mental state at the time
of writing the work because of the pressure of juggling his NHS
and media work.
'Disrepute'
"Your dishonest conduct brings the profession into disrepute
and the Panel has... concluded that your fitness to practise is
impaired by reason of your misconduct," the GMC said in a
judgement released on Friday.
Persaud is a consultant psychiatrist at the Bethlem Royal
and Maudsley Hospitals and Gresham professor for Public
Understanding of Psychiatry.
In 2002, he was voted one of the top 10 psychiatrists in the
UK by a survey of the Institute of Psychiatry and the Royal
College of Psychiatrists.
He was resident psychiatrist on the daytime TV show This
Morning and has appeared on the Richard & Judy show.
He has
written regularly for The Daily Telegraph and The Independent
newspapers.