Dr Quentin Spender, a senior lecturer and consultant in child & adolescent psychiatry was reprimanded by the GMC for concluding that one his patients has had been sexually abused by some, or all members of her when he had insufficient information on which to draw that conclusion.
Dr Spender was also criticised for forming and expressing a view as to the likelihood that a boy had sexually abused another boy when he had insufficient information for drawing such conclusion.
In a critical judgement the GMC stated that the Panel might have gone on to consider a more serious sanction but in reaching its decision paid particular regard to the length of the delay in bringing this case to a hearing, which has taken place eight and a half and six and a half years after the events.
The Panel also took into account the fact that Dr Spender had continued in the same area of clinical practice and that there had been no evidence of any repetition of the conduct that brought him before the Panel.
The Panel nevertheless stated that these two cases demonstrated a high-handed and blinkered approach by Dr Spender's to his work. They concluded that in the case of Miss A, Dr Spender gave his conclusion in unnecessarily blunt terms to Miss A’s parents. In the case of Boy Y Dr Spender showed a lack of professional judgement in not simply providing Mr W with the information he required to support the decision that he proposed to take, and separately, bringing his concerns with regard to Boy Y to the appropriate authorities in measured terms.
The Panel considered that Dr Spender failed to have due consideration for the families concerned or the likely impact upon them of the information that you were imparting. Dr Spender was employed in an NHS Trust in Sussex and also practised at The Child & Family Service for Mental Health, John Grenville House, Chichester and also at Orchard House, Chichester.