Doctor Suspended After Violent Outburst and Car Attack

A locum doctor has been suspended for seven months following an assault on a woman in Monmouthshire in June 2023. 🏥

Dr Thabo William Miller, 41, who works across three unnamed NHS trusts, admitted to calling the woman “fat”, “ugly”, and “a vile b***h” during the incident. The misconduct panel heard that Dr Miller grabbed the woman’s car wing mirror attempting to bend it backwards, and rocked her car back and forth while holding the driver-side door and window, preventing her from closing it.

The Somerset-based doctor was convicted of assault by beating at Newport Magistrates’ Court and sentenced to a community order, including 29 days of a “building better relationships” programme, along with financial penalties of a £114 victim services surcharge and £85 in prosecution costs.

Despite finding his fitness to practise was impaired, the tribunal granted Dr Miller a one-month grace period before his suspension begins. This decision came after his barrister, Lee Gledhill, argued there was “no pressing need for an immediate order” that would prevent his client from “tying up his clinical work” as an ad hoc locum with scheduled shifts.

“Enabling him to work for a further month would help to reduce any financial hardship,” Mr Gledhill told the panel.

Tribunal chairwoman Rachel Birks determined that an immediate suspension would be “disproportionate” as the case did not involve “patient safety concerns” and there was no abuse of trust suggested.