Gerry could be a risk to his patients, warns senior heart specialist

Last updated at 23:45 29 October 2007

Gerry McCann could be putting patients' lives at risk by returning to work too soon, a senior heart specialist warns yesterday.

Mr McCann will restart work on Thursday as a consultant cardiologist after six months' absence after the disappearance of his daughter Madeleine from their holiday apartment in Portugal.

A patients' group said Mr McCann, an official police suspect along with his wife Kate, should be monitored for at least three months and the public should be able to choose not to be treated by him.

Roger Goss, director of Patient Concern, which campaigns for patients' rights, said : "It's a good idea he is allowed back. But he should be monitored for three to six months to ensure he is all right.

"Patients should be allowed the option of not being treated by him while the case has such a high profile.
"I know it sounds discriminatory but it is not unreasonable."

A senior consultant cardiologist, who did not wish to be named, said: "How will he be able to concentrate on his work with his daughter missing?

"It is a high-pressure job and you have to make difficult decisions. I can tell you from personal experience that if your mind is not totally on it, it is hard.

"If he is going to be doing procedures where you have to totally focus, the only way you can do it is compartmentalise and if you can't do it, it could be very difficult. He could break down and make a mistake."

The consultant said that colleagues at Glenfield Hospital in Leicester would need to "rally round".

But a source close to Mr McCann told the Evening Standard he will return in an "academic" role at first before treating patients at a later date after supervision.

The source said: "The NHS has rules about suitability and readiness to return to work. Gerry will not deal with patients immediately. It will be academic work."

The source described it as a "big week" for Mr McCann.

Next Saturday - two days after Mr McCann returns to work - the family will mark six months since Madeleine vanished with a vigil at the Anglican church of St Mary and St John in Rothley, Leicestershire. Although Roman Catholics, the McCanns have chosen the Anglican church because of its size.

Mr McCann is returning to work with the approval of the General Medical Council which regulates the medical profession.

A former South African detective who boasts he can find missing people has returned to Praia da Luz to look for Madeleine.

Danie Krugel has rented an apartment in the Algarve resort and claims to have invented a machine which can locate a body or corpse if provided with a DNA sample.

Clarence Mitchell, the McCanns' official spokesman, said if Mr Krugel was back in Praia da Luz it was not at the request of the McCanns. "If he is back in town I have no idea why," Mr Mitchell said. "It is nothing to do with us."


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Somehow our Gerry managed to get back into his normal routine without too many problems, bless him! Does anyone know if he is still working, either full or part time? I've heard stories that he may not be but I don't know if they're true.