A DOCTOR accused of professional misconduct over the removal of a mole without permission has been cleared by the General Medical Council.
The committee cleared Dr Robert Nigel Clark, a 49-year-old consultant at the Duchess of Kent military hospital in Catterick, of removing Richmond patient Jacqueline Hodgson's facial mole without her consent, during an operation in 1998.
The committee decided his actions had not been inappropriate or an abuse or his professional position.
Committee chairman and council president Sir Donald Irvine said they had accepted Dr Clark's evidence that the patient gave implicit consent to the removal of the mole.
However, he said Mrs Hodgson's complaint raised serious points of principle and policy which needed to be addressed by the GMC, including lowering the standards of proof required from beyond reasonable doubt to the balance of probabilities.
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