Catherine Calderwood’s medical mentor has spoken of his distress at her resignation for flouting her own coronavirus rules and his hope she will return to work in the NHS.
Professor Ross Lorimer, who has been described by the former chief medical officer (CMO) as a major influence on her life, said the health service needed someone of her ability.
Before the coronavirus crisis, Dr Calderwood was the only CMO to continue seeing patients running an obstetrics and gynaecology clinic at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary around once a week.
Officially, Dr Calderwood is an employee of NHS Lothian and was on secondment to the Scottish Government as CMO.
Professor Lorimer, 82, was Dr Calderwood’s consultant when she was a junior house officer and registrar at Glasgow Royal Infirmary (GRI) in the 1990s.
“I have the highest regard for Catherine. She’s an excellent doctor and I’m very distressed that this has happened,” said Professor Lorimer, a former president of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow.
“I think this will take time to get over, then settle down and realign her career to make use of her very considerable talent.
“I hope it all works out for her. She has ability that the health service needs. I’m just sorry this has happened and I hope she finds success in whatever she sets out to do.”
In interviews, Dr Calderwood has paid tribute to Professor Lorimer saying how much she admired his approach to medicine when they worked in GRI emergency department during Glasgow’s ice cream wars.
Professor Lorimer was speaking following reports suggesting Dr Calderwood could be investigated by the General Medical Council (GMC) for breaching her own lockdown guidelines by visiting her holiday home in Earlsferry.
Dr Calderwood went to her holiday home two weekends in a row despite being the public face of the Scottish Government’s “Stay at Home” campaign. She was warned about her conduct by Police Scotland. When it first emerged on Saturday night that she had gone to Fife with her family, she failed to tell the Scottish Government that she had been there the week before. She confessed to her previous visit at Sunday’s press conference.
“I have the highest regard for Catherine. She’s an excellent doctor and I’m very distressed that this has happened.”
Professor Ross Lorimer
In its guidance, the GMC, the medical watchdog, says doctors must strive to act in a way that ensures the public “maintain trust in you and the profession by being open, honest, and acting with integrity”.
In her resignation statement on Sunday night, Dr Calderwood said she would continue to work with her team over the “next few days” to ensure a smooth transition as interim CMO Dr Gregor Smith takes over.
Hugh Pennington, the emeritus bacteriology professor at Aberdeen University, agreed that Dr Calderwood should put her skills to good use to help relieve NHS skills shortage.
“She has kept up with her gynaecology and obstetrics because she still had some NHS clinics,” Professor Pennington said. “That’s unlike many other doctors who give up clinical practice when they become administrative doctors. I don’t want to call it a bolthole, but she has a ready-made one. She would have to do more sessions to do that. I don’t think any branch of medicine is oversubscribed and I wouldn’t have thought she would have any difficulty getting back into clinical practice.
“She did a silly thing. I just don’t know what was going through her mind. It would be nice if she did that (go back to her speciality) and continue to contribute. We need people to contribute to healthcare. If she did do that, then full marks to her. I don’t know whether she can do any more to expiate herself.
“She was so humiliated at that press conference having to stand up and take the metaphorical tawse. Clearly when the Chief Medical Officer becomes the story, it becomes untenable when the story is so much bigger and more important.”