Revealed: Prison doctor who played key role in release of the Lockerbie bomber had no specialist cancer knowledge
The prison doctor who played a key role in the release of the Lockerbie bomber is a GP with no specialist cancer knowledge, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal.
Dr Peter Kay, who until now has only been identified by the Scottish Government as an unnamed "primary care physician" of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi's, provided a crucial medical report which led to the conclusion that the prisoner was likely to have three months, or less, to live.
The life expectancy of Megrahi was crucial because, under Scottish rules, prisoners can be freed on compassionate grounds only if they are considered to have this amount of time or less to live.
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Dr Kay, the prison doctor, when approached at his home in Scotland, initially denied that he was formerly the doctor at HM Prison Greenock, where Megrahi was serving his life sentence. However, he later said: "You'll be aware of the hypocratic oath [on patient confidentiality]? I just can't say anything."
The GP was a key contributor to medical evidence supplied to Dr Andrew Fraser, the director of health and care of the Scottish Prison Service, who in turn drew up the report upon which Mr MacAskill's decision was reached.
Dr Kay trained at Glasgow University and became a qualified doctor in 1998. During his time at Greenock Prison, which ended earlier this year, he is understood to have combined his role as the part-time prison doctor with work as a local GP.
According to the General Medical Council, which contains information on all qualified doctors, he has been registered as a GP since 2006 and he is not on any specialist register.
The disclosure led to immediate calls in the United States that the Senate committee scrutinising Megrahi's release should be allowed to interview Dr Kay. The committee has been angered by the Scottish Government's refusal to co-operate with its investigation.
Senator Chuck Schumer said this weekend: "The Scottish authorities should not muzzle this physician. If there is nothing to hide, they should not only allow, but encourage, this doctor to explain and defend a prognosis that helped facilitate the unjust release of a terrorist."
Nearly a year ago The Sunday Telegraph revealed that Professor Karol Sikora, a leading cancer expert, had also come up with the estimate that Megrahi had three months to live after he and two others doctors were paid by the Libyan Government to carry out an assessment of the Libyan in prison. As well as Professor Sikora, a Libyan doctor also estimated Megrahi had three months to live while a third expert would say only that he had a short time to live.
Ever since the disclosure, the Scottish Government has tried to distance itself from this Libyan-financed medical assessment. Only last week a statement from the Scottish Government stressed "their examinations formed no part of the expert advice considered".
The patient assessment by the three doctors took place at HM Prison on July 28, 2009. This was only four days after Megrahi first applied to be released on compassionate grounds and 17 days before Dr Fraser submitted his report to Mr MacAskill on August 14, 2009 - a week before the bomber won his freedom.
A spokesman for the Scottish Government refused to confirm that Dr Kay was the prison doctor involved in the assessment. However, he said: "It was Dr Andrew Fraser, Director of Health and Care of the Scottish Prison Service, who concluded in his report to the Cabinet Secretary for Justice that his clinical assessment was that a three month prognosis was a reasonable estimate.
"Dr Fraser is a professional of unimpeachable integrity. It was his professional responsibility to provide the clinical assessment of al-Megrahi's condition, and his report, which has been published by the Scottish Government, was the only medical report submitted to the Justice Secretary – along with the reports of the Parole Board and Prison Governor, which also supported a compassionate release decision.
"Dr Fraser drew on expert advice from a number of cancer specialists in coming to his clinical assessment that a three month prognosis was a reasonable estimate for al-Megrahi – it was not based on the opinion of any one doctor.
"These specialists included two consultant oncologists, two consultant urologists and a number of other specialists, including a palliative care team, and Mr al-Megrahi's primary care physician."
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