The owner of a clinic where a 10-year-old boy died

The owner of a clinic where a 10-year-old boy died during a routine tooth extraction was banned from dentistry today.

(thurs)

Maurice Beckett was struck off for a series of failures in his management of the clinic including failing to ensure staff knew life-saving procedures.

Beckett, was told his management of the Peffermill Clinic, in Craigmillar, Edinburgh fell far short of the high standards expected from dentists.

Beckett employed Dr John Evans-Appiah, the anaesthetist whose bungles have been blamed for the death of Darren Denholm.

Trevor Grififths, chairman of the professional conduct committee of the General Dental Council said of Mr Beckett, of (169a) Church Street, Blackpool:

‘The committee is very concerned about the facts that have been admitted and proved against you in this case.

‘In particular the committee is concerned about the arrangements made to obtain informed consent, failure to ensure that the systems you put in place in your practice were sufficient to protect your patients, and failure to conform to the standards of cardiac-pulmonary resuscitation training for those who worked at the Peffermill Clinic as were appropriate in 1998.

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Mr Griffiths added: ‘The committee consider that both individually and cumulatively these matters constitute a very seriour falling short of the
professional standards expected of a dentist and that the only appropriate course of action is erasure.

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Paul Shields, of (5) West Main Street, Armadale, Bathgate, West Lothian, the dentist who referred Darren Denholm to the clinic, and Hallgeir Pedersen of (49a) Hight Street, Linlithgow, West Lothian, the dentist operating on Darren on the day of the tragedy, October 9 1998, were both cleared of
committing serious professional misconduct.

Mr Beckett refused to comment as he rushed to leave the central London hearing.

Mrs Isla Denholm, mother of Darren, said she was relieved that the hearing was over.

Her daughter Amanda, 8, had told her ‘she would give her mummy the sack and get a new mummy’ if she didn’t come home to Scotland soon.

Mrs Alice Campbell, 61, Darren’s grandmother, who held the boy’s hand before he went into the clinic on October 9 said that she thought the most guilty person had been Dr Evans-Appiah.

She said: ‘I think the main fault was with the anaesthetist.

I think he was very, very negligent.

The important thing was that he was struck off.

‘Mr Shields has been our dentist for a long long time and up until Darren’s problems he had always been a kind and caring person.

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ends