GP who tried to kill mother's partner with poison struck off

A general practitioner who disguised himself as a community nurse to inject a Covid-19 booster and instead gave a pesticide to his mother’s partner has been struck off the medical register and will be erased with immediate effect.

Thomas Kwan, 54, of Ingleby Barwick, Stockton-on-Tees, was jailed for 31 years and five months after admitting attempted murder for the January 22, 2024, attack on Patrick O’Hara in Newcastle. Mr O’Hara required five days in intensive care, had sections of dead flesh removed from his arm and later underwent reconstructive surgery after contracting necrotising fasciitis.

The Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service, sitting online with Kwan attending by telephone from HMP Frankland in County Durham, found that he was unfit to practise. The panel concluded his conduct “breached a fundamental tenet of the profession”, noting that doctors “should act with integrity and within the law,” and said he had shown an “absence of remorse” and brought the profession into disrepute.

The tribunal heard Kwan posed as a community nurse using a face mask and a false accent when he attended Mr O’Hara’s home, having earlier sent fake NHS letters to set up a home visit. The panel was told Kwan injected the victim with iodomethane, a pesticide, after conducting a medical examination; he dismissed the immediate pain as an allergic reaction.

Prosecutors told the court Kwan had booked into a Newcastle hotel the day before using false details, driven to the city with false number plates on his car and bought poisons and chemical ingredients through a shell company he set up out of his workplace, which he told colleagues had been formed to manage his properties. The tribunal said it was evident Kwan used his medical knowledge and professional experience to gain the victim’s trust and carry out the attack.

Alex Mullen, counsel for the General Medical Council, told the tribunal the public would have been “confused, shocked and dismayed” if Kwan had not been struck off and that failing to erase him would have damaged confidence in other medical professionals. The GMC had earlier argued Kwan should be found unfit to practise.

Kwan, who worked in Sunderland and told the tribunal he had had an “unblemished” career, disputed that his actions were linked to his role as a doctor. The panel rejected those submissions, saying claims that the attack was an “isolated unprecedented mistake” and suggestions that Mr O’Hara had failed to check the letters were genuine demonstrated a “profound lack of insight and remorse” and amounted to victim blaming. The tribunal noted Kwan saw Mr O’Hara as an “obstacle” to inheriting his mother’s St Thomas Street home.

Kwan told the tribunal he wished to “sincerely apologise” for his actions but chose to make no representations about the sanction imposed. With the erasure ordered to take effect immediately, he can no longer practise as a doctor in the UK. The tribunal’s decision reflects its finding that Kwan’s deliberate exploitation of his professional position and the severity of harm caused made continued registration incompatible with protecting patients and maintaining public confidence in the medical profession.