26th August, 2010
Germany’s killer doctor Daniel Ubani is to face an inquiry to strip him of his right to practise medicine after all.
The bungling physician who killed patient David Gray during his first shift as an out-of-hours doctor in Britain won a court injunction last week to stop his local medical authorities from examining his competency.
They had planned to make Nigerian-born Ubani, 67, sit an exam to gauge his medical knowledge.
But a court ruled on Tuesday last week that only his local government, non-medical employers, could judge him.
Now, in a dramatic U-turn, bureaucrats in Arnsberg responsible for licensing him have informed the local Physicians Chamber they are now agreeable to a hearing.
”It could take place within days or possibly weeks,” said Dr. Markus Wenning, the managing director of the chamber in Westfalen-Lippe.
”It is most welcome news.”
Last night, he told a regional BBC programme: ”The individual rights of Dr. Ubani have been placed before patient safety… it is very obvious which should come first, the patient.”
He added: ”We have offered to help the local government with their hearing, there is still the urgent necessity to act quickly in the interests of patients in Germany.”
Responding to the news, Rory Gray, a son of the victim said: ”It’s obviously welcome news. I don’t know why it’s taken two years to come to this decision but finally they’re doing the right thing and they’re going to take action.
”Why was this not done two years ago like it was at the GMC when it was immediately apparent how dangerous this person is?”
Dr. Wenning said it was likely that the Ubani case could lead to changes in laws in Germany that serve to protect incompetent medical professionals.
He also revealed that Ubani is taking court action against their president, Dr. Theodor Windhorst, for ”speaking publicly” about him.
In a separate legal action, the result of which is expected, Ubani is attempting to stop Rory Gray and his GP brother, Stuart, from speaking to the media in the UK and in Germany about the killing.
Ubani injected David Gray, of Manea, Cambridgeshire, with 10 times the recommended dosage of the painkiller diamorphine in 2008.
Britain wanted Ubani brought back from Germany to face trial but he cut a deal with German prosecutors that saw him fined less than £4,500 pounds with a nine months suspended jail term.
His ability to practice medicine, both as a GP and as a plastic surgeon, was unimpaired.
This was despite malpractice cases in Germany in which he had to pay out thousands to women whose facelifts he botched.
The sons of David Gray heckled Ubani at a medical conference in June in which they forced him to abandon his speech after branding him a charlatan, an animal and a killer.
They are still awaiting the outcome of a police probe as to whether they will be charged with trespass at the hall where Ubani was speaking.
Papers seen by the Daily Mail show that in September 2006 Ubani was given a Certificate of Good Standing by German local government officials to work in the UK.
It was open ended, with no expiry date. But only three months later, Christa Boettcher won compensation from him in a local court for botching her facelift.
The following year, another German woman, Helga Freitag, also won damages against him for botching a facelift.