High Court overturns GMC's decision to strike off plastic surgeon

A “uniquely talented” plastic surgeon who was erased from the medical register by the General Medical Council earlier this year for having a sexual relationship with a patient won a High Court ruling last week. The court quashed the decision and substituted a suspension of 12 months.

The judgment in the case of Henk Giele spells out that the correct approach in such cases is not to consider erasure the rule, in the absence of exceptional circumstances.

Mr Justice Collins said that the advice given to the GMC panel by its legal assessor had been erroneous. The assessor had advised the panel that sexual misconduct tended to attract erasure but that …