Suspended Powys doctor “a risk to patient safety."

Knighton Dr Sarah Myhill's suspension from the medical practitioners register was extended by a year after a hearing last week.

She was suspended for nine months in January over practices including promoting inappropriate treatments for Covid-19 – including Vitamin C, Iodine, Vitamin D and Ivermectin.

Dr Myhill did not attend the January meeting and threatened to "shred" anything she received related to it.

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But she appeared at this month's hearing, and attacked the General Medical Council (GMC) claiming they had “misled the Tribunal” by failing to allow her to produce her own medical records of her patients". She said she did not attend the previous hearing “because it could not possibly be fair”.

Dr Myhill said that “both GMC experts were either dishonest or not experts and acted to support the GMCs allegations” and alleged that the Tribunal’s decision was “materially flawed”.

In January Dr Myhill was found to have incorrectly prescribed medication including in one instance an “internet-sourced pig thyroid extract” called PTE. Another patient was given the drug Valaciclovir for genital herpes – even though they did not have the condition and were given too high a dose to be effective.

She was also found to have been “mega dosing” vitamins "without any clinical evidence”.

It was also found she had failed to diagnose a patient who “had a possible fractured hip that required immediate management".

Dr Myhill did not “indicate the need for an ambulance” but instead administered an anti-inflammatory - prednisolone, a relaxant - diazepam, and recommended a Keto (high-fat, adequate-protein, low-carbohydrate) diet.

When asked by the tribunal panel what she had done since the previous hearing, Dr Myhill said that she has remediated by having “provided a huge body of evidence”.

Dr Myhill referred to the research and references she provided in relation to Magnesium, Vitamin C, Vitamin D and Iodine – adding there had “been no deaths from supplements and her recommendations for vitamins and minerals are considerably safer than prescription drugs”.

When asked about an article about the effectiveness of wearing of masks during Covid on her website Dr Myhill responded that her evidence was “that she could not find any evidence about the effective use of masks but had not tried very hard to source opinion” but that due to “sanctions in the past” she took the Covid material down.

Ms Emsley-Smith, for the GMC, reminded the Tribunal that they had previously determined that 10,000 international units of Vitamin D per day is “not universally safe” and that there were health risks associated in “mega dosing” Vitamin C. She said Dr Myhill should have reflected those risks on her website. 

She submitted that Dr Myhill had “not reflected at all and has demonstrated no insight” highlighting her continued promotion of iodine.

Ms Emsley-Smith said: “Dr Myhill was dismissive of the experts and does not demonstrate any professional respect of fellow practitioners.”

The tribunal decided Dr Myhill had not shown any sign of reflection on her action but had instead “sought to evidence her original position”.

It added she “failed to respond to the duties of a doctor” when designing the website’s content and removed information from it only to avoid further conflict with the GMC.

They added “Whilst she stated that she no longer wished to be associated with her Regulator she constantly refers to herself as a ‘good doctor’.

“Dr Myhill’s actions demonstrate confirmation bias and that she has persuaded herself that she is right to the exclusion of competing views and evidence," the panel said. "In the Tribunal’s view, doctors should be welcome to challenge and willing to reflect on their own beliefs and behaviours.

“It considered that given the lack of insight and remediation and the risk of repetition that there is a risk to patient safety."