Dr Anne McCloskey: GP suspended over Covid jab concerns

A Londonderry doctor has been given a further suspension of six months for using her position to undermine the public health message on Coronavirus.

Dr Anne McCloskey had already been suspended by the General Medical Council (GMC) over comments about the Covid-19 vaccination.

A medical tribunal, sitting in Manchester, has now extended that.

It found that her actions fell below standards expected of a doctor and that this amounted to misconduct.

Dr McCloskey did not attend the hearing of the Medical Practitioners’ Tribunal Service.

It hears cases against doctors where serious concerns have been raised and as a result their fitness to practise has been called into question by the GMC.

In August 2021, Dr McCloskey expressed concerns in a social media video about young people taking Covid jabs.

Her claims included that young people were being coerced, bullied bribed and cajoled into receiving the vaccine.

She was suspended after her comments attracted a number of complaints.

The tribunal found that Dr McCloskey’s actions fell below standards expected of a registered doctor and that this amounted to misconduct, which was serious.

Her comments came at a time when the general public was “vulnerable”, given the Covid-19, tribunal chair Becky Miller said.

“Dr McCloskey was not simply providing guidance and information to the public.

“Given the vitriolic language she had used, Dr McCloskey was causing alarm and was forcing her opinion on the general public.”

The doctor did not attend the hearing but had claimed to be the victim of a conspiracy and earlier this year mounted a legal challenge to her suspension.

In June, she told the High Court that more than 20,000 people had signed an online petition to have her reinstated.

At the time, she said her professional reputation had been “removed arbitrarily” and that people within the medical profession and government agents had schemed against her.

The tribunal noted that Dr McCloskey had served 40 years as a doctor without any previous misconduct.