DRUG ROW DOC STRUCK OFF

A DOCTOR who began his career in St Albans has been thrown out of the
profession for putting patients' lives at risk by ignoring the
guidance of his governing body.

Woldzimierz Dzikowski, who started his own clinic in 1997 after
working at St Albans City Hospital, continued to prescribe drugs to
heroin addicts even after the General Medical Council (GMC) banned
him from doing so.

A GMC hearing heard on Friday how Dzikowski, 65, was exposed by an
undercover journalist posing as a middle-class heroin addict, after
he wrongly gave him a week's supply of methadone.

He was ordered never to prescribe the drug again by the medical
council, but he repeatedly ignored the restrictions imposed on him at
his north London rehab clinics.

Chairman of the misconduct committee Jackie Mitton said the doctor
had a "deep-seated attitudinal problem" and refused to accept the
GMC's conditions.

She said he posed a significant risk to patients adding: "There is a
significant risk that you would not comply if a further period of
conditions were imposed on your registration."

During the original hearing in 2003, the GMC found Dzikowski failed
to monitor the progress of two addicts who developed life-threatening
complications and gave an inappropriate and irresponsible
prescription to BBC reporter Matthew Chapman in July 2001.

He escaped being struck off over his dangerous but "well intentioned"
practice and was subjected to strict conditions including not to
prescribe methadone. He was also ordered to retrain in the treatment
of drug abusers.

But he breached his conditions in April 2005 when he prescribed
methadone to a patient and again in 2006 and 2007.

Marios Lambis, for the GMC, said: "He has sought time after time to
deflect any culpability or wrongdoing on his part. He has deployed
numerous tactics to blame or counter-blame against others.

"In short, it could be said he has sought to blame everyone but himself."

The court heard Dzikowski worked at NHS hospitals in St Albans,
Milton Keynes, Roehampton, and south west London.