DOCTOR ALLOWED TO RETURN TO WORK

PIKEVILLE - A Pike County judge has granted a temporary injunction
allowing an Eastern Kentucky physician accused of overprescribing
medicine to return to work.

However, Dr. Kermit D. Gibson, a family practitioner in Elkhorn City,
won't be permitted to write prescriptions under the order by Circuit
Judge Steve Combs.

State officials began an investigation of Gibson last May after
receiving complaints that he was prescribing narcotics without proper
examinations or justification.

Consultants to the Kentucky Board of Medical Licensure alleged that
some of the prescriptions for painkillers exceeded what would be
necessary for even a terminal cancer patient, and that Gibson's
medical records were brief and almost illegible.

"If we are to assume that his records reflect his knowledge, then he
prescribed narcotics for individuals with very little reason," the
consultants claim.

The medical board tempo-rarily suspended Gibson's license in January,
pending an administrative hearing scheduled for August.

Chad Elder, an attorney for the medical board, said Combs' order
allows Gibson to return to his practice for now.

Gibson claimed that the medical board was acting capriciously when it
suspended his license.

Combs said in his ruling that Gibson showed that the medical board's
action may have been arbitrary and may not have been supported by
substantial evidence.