A DOCTOR made out false prescriptions at a Bury hospital -- in the names of patients, friends and even his own wife -- to feed his craving for drugs.

The number of prescriptions Dr Sumit Mukherjee submitted alarmed nursing staff at Bury General Hospital, a disciplinary hearing at the General Medical Council was told.

Dr Mukherjee ordered large doses of diamorphine when employed as a senior house officer in 1999 with the Bury Health Care NHS Trust.

He continued to use bogus prescriptions when he moved to work at the Caerphilly and District Minors Hospital in Mid Glamorgan. He submitted more than 150 prescriptions at the Welsh hospital and received 7,900 tablets -- which were never administered to patients -- during 2000 and 2001.

At the central London hearing Dr Mukherjee, registered as of Clos-yr-Arad, Castleview, Caerphilly, is facing a series of allegations which, at an earlier hearing, were proved to amount to serious professional misconduct for which he could be struck off.

Mr Iaqn Stern, counsel for the GMC, told the hearing that last August at North West Gwent Magistrates Court, the doctor was convicted on three counts of making a false instrument, eight counts of obtaining property by deception, and one count of theft.

They all related to drugs offences, and the doctor had asked for a further 128 counts involving drugs to be taken into consideration.

Magistrates remanded the doctor for sentence, and last November at Cardiff Crown Court he was sentenced to eight months in prison, suspended for two years, and was placed on a supervision order for two years.

Mr Stern said that Dr Mukherjee had been arrested after a doctor at the Caerphilly hospital discovered that prescriptions in his name had been forged and presented to local pharmacists.

Questioned by police, Dr Mukherjee said: "It was the only way to deal with stress and continue working."

Mr Stern told the hearing that during his career in Bury a nurse had questioned the number of prescriptions he submitted asking him if he had shares in diamorphine.

Apart from the prescription allegations the doctor has been found guilty of breaching the terms of a suspension imposed by the GMC's Preliminary Proceedings Committee when the case first came to light.

He had been told on May 18, 2000, that he could not work, but on July accepted an appointment as a locum clinical assistant at Broomfield Hospital, Chelmsford, Essex. When hospital officials double checked with the GMC they found that he had been suspended and withdrew the job offer.

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