FAMILY DOCTOR IS ARRESTED OVER THE DRUG DEATHS OF FIVE PATIENTS

A GP has been arrested on suspicion of manslaughter by police probing the
deaths of five patients.

Dr John Gordon, 50, was quizzed for 10 hours by detectives in Carlisle over
the deaths of the young men from methadone overdoses.

The investigation centres on medical negligence, rather than wilful intent,
in the prescribing of the heroin substitute methadone, used to treat
addicts.

Dr Gordon, who shares a practice with three others in Carlisle city centre,
was arrested on Monday night.

Police are probing deaths from January last year. They say two bodies may
be exhumed.

Dr Gordon spent yesterday with his wife Barbara behind closed doors at
their GBP150,000 five-bedroom stone cottage in Longburgh, outside Carlisle,
after being released on bail until June.

He has agreed to stay away from his work as a GP and has therefore not been
suspended by the health authority.

Dr Gordon treated many drug abusers and health officials say it would not
be unusual for several of them to die each year.

The police investigation was sparked last week after concerns were raised
about a recent death in Carlisle. Coroner Ian Morton said "certain matters"
had come to light after an inquest was opened and adjourned and police had
asked him not to release the body, being kept at Cumberland Infirmary.

Part of the investigation is believed to concern the death of Michael
Kirkpatrick, 19, on May 23 last year.

An inquest found he had mistakenly taken an overdose of methadone which he
had been prescribed.

Jobless Michael was found dead by fiancee Tracie Wilkinson, 24, in their
bedsit in Carlisle. She told the inquest that both of them were trying to
get off heroin by taking methadone.

Mr Morton recorded a verdict of accidental death, describing it as a
"tragic waste of a young life". Yesterday, Tracie told how she expressed
her fears about the levels of methadone.

She said that Michael had a GBP15-a-day heroin habit and had dabbled in
drugs since he was 16.

"I had a GBP35-a-day habit and was prescribed 35 milligrams of methadone.
But Mikey had less of a habit and was given a 40mg dose," she said.

"The night he died we were watching a video and he kept dozing off on the
settee. He seemed pretty doped up.

"We went to bed after 2am but I woke at 6.30am. I reached out and touched
him - his hand was freezing cold."

The Kirkpatrick family blame Tracie for Michael's death and banned her from
the funeral, though she claims to have expressed her fears to his parents.

The issue was then raised with police as they were continuing their routine
inquiries into the death for the coroner.

Tracie claimed that Michael had only been prescribed methadone six days
before he died.

Inquests have been heard into two of the five deaths being probed.

Dr Peter Tiplady, North Cumbria Health Authority's director of public
health, said the common methadone dosage was 10-40mg a day, taken orally,
and that Dr Gordon had prescribed within that range.

Ten months ago Dr Gordon criticised groups who are campaigning for doctors
to be prosecuted where terminally-ill patients have died through overdoses
of medication. He said: "They are do-gooders who think life is sacred. They
don't seem to realise we will all die and want to do it as painlessly as
possible."