A VETERAN doctor from Bolton - suspended after practice failings last year - has confirmed he is stepping down.

The Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) imposed an eight-month ban on Dr Simon Caswell last July after concerns were raised by bosses at the Beehive Surgery in Great Lever.

Issues had been identified around his administration of drugs - problems for which he he had been banned on two separate previous occassions.

And when it came time for his suspension to be reviewed in the latest case, Dr Caswell informed the MPTS he was agreeable to his voluntary erasure from the medical register.

The tribunal heard that the GP had not made any attempts to undertake the required hours needed of clinical activity to return to practice and was approaching 69, and so would be looking to bring his career to a close in any event.

The tribunal last year, which ruled his fitness to practice was impaired, heard how the doctor had increased a patient's fentanyl patch from 50mg to 100mg. An expert said this would have placed the patient in danger of opiate toxicity.

The hearing was told Dr Caswell also prescribed sodium valproate to a female patient, despite official advice warning against giving this to women of child bearing age, and in a third case trebled the dosage of a morphine treatment, presenting further safety risks.

Before then, Dr Caswell had also served a three-month ban for prescribing his own wife, Patricia, morphine sulphate for pain relief.

And he was also disciplined by the former General Medical Council for treating another relative with opiates, when he was not supposed to be given those kind of drugs. His own GP was also unaware of the extra treatment.

Panel chairman Rachel Birks said: "In considering the public interest, the tribunal bore in mind that any risk to the public that could be inferred from the misconduct or lack of insight on the part of Dr Caswell would be entirely negated by the erasure of Dr Caswell from the register and him ceasing to practise entirely."