George Osborne's doctor brother guilty of dishonest behaviour

The brother of shadow chancellor George Osborne was found guilty at a medical disciplinary hearing today of misleading and dishonest behaviour.

A General Medical Council (GMC) panel found that Dr Adam Osborne, 33, was at fault over falsifying the name of a cocaine-addicted friend on a prescription he handed to hospital staff.

He later obtained the desired anti-psychotic drugs at a private pharmacy using an incomplete form. But members of the panel said charges of misleading and dishonest behaviour in relation to the second prescription were not proved.

Dr Osborne could be struck off the medical register when the GMC panel sanctions the psychiatrist later this week.

Dr Osborne had earlier admitted that he met a woman - referred to in the case as Miss B - in a car park outside the Wythenshawe Hospital on May 12 2008.

The friend was suffering from hallucinations as a side-effect of cocaine use, prompting the doctor to attempt to obtain the drugs lorazepam and haloperidol.

But rather than take Miss B into the hospital, he went on his own and falsified her name.

Ruling on the statement of facts in the case, Alyson Leslie, chair of the disciplinary panel, told Dr Osborne: "Attempting to obtain haloperidol and lorazepam for Miss B by writing an NHS prescription in a false name and presenting that at a hospital pharmacy was misleading.

"The panel is also satisfied that attempting to obtain haloperidol and lorazepam in those circumstances was dishonest."

The hospital denied Dr Osborne's request for the drugs as the name given for the patient did not match anyone in its records.

Following the refusal, he drove to a nearby pharmacy where he wrote out a private prescription for the medication, using an incomplete form which missed out Miss B's name and address.

The panel ruled that it was not proved that this constituted misleading and dishonest behaviour.

The panel will hear from another witness before deciding if Dr Osborne's fitness to practise is impaired due to misconduct.

Alongside supplying medication to his friend, Dr Osborne has already admitted prescribing the contraceptive pill for his then-girlfriend and anti-smoking drug Zyban to a family member.

In all three cases, he failed to record the prescriptions in the personal medical records of the individuals.

Neither did he tell their GPs.

The incidents occurred while Dr Osborne, the younger brother of the Tory MP, was a psychiatry trainee at Wythenshawe Hospital.

Last week, he told the panel that in the case of Miss B, he made the prescriptions due to what he said was "an acute emergency" relating to her condition.

But he denied he was trying to hide the identity of the friend or conceal her presence at the hospital.

He met the woman in late 2007 or early 2008 at a social setting, the panel heard.

But Dr Osborne declined to describe in open session the circumstance in which he came to know Miss B.

Asked by GMC counsel Bernadette Baxter if the initial meeting was a "social setting you wouldn't want people to know about", he replied: "I would rather answer that in private session."

He also admitted not having paid enough attention to the guidelines laid out in Good Medical Practice at the time he wrote out the prescriptions.

Dr Osborne said he "hadn't taken that message on board", when asked whether he knew it was wrong to prescribe for family members and friends.