A PSYCHIATRIST tried to ban a nun from wearing her habit because she feared it might provoke patients to murder her, the General Medical Council was told yesterday.

Dr Helen Bright allegedly told Sister Bernadette Onwuzuruigbois, a social worker at Northwick Park Hospital in Harrow, North London, that her uniform could put them at risk from mentally ill patients who had suffered abuse from religious institutions.

The Harley Street consultant is accused of serious professional misconduct after incidents in which she was allegedly rude and aggressive to patients’ relatives, threatened to sue a colleague for defaming her in a reference, and swore at a hospital manager trying to get her to leave the building.

Dr Bright, 48, admitted a charge of sectioning seven patients under the Mental Health Act after her authority to do so had lapsed.

Jane Sullivan, counsel for the GMC, told the council’s professional conduct committee that Dr Bright, who came to England from Yugoslavia 28 years ago, had been “at best unprofessional”. Dr Bright had sent a letter to Sister Bernadette in October 1999 which read: “You will have noticed we do not wear uniforms. I would like to explain why.” Miss Sullivan said the nun had found the letter “very upsetting, feeling she was being accused of something”.

The doctor was then employed as a consultant psychiatrist by Wolverhampton NHS Trust. After she left the trust she allegedly pursued a project on the wearing of uniforms, in which she approached patients without permission to ask if they felt comfortable in the presence of priests and nuns in religious dress.

In a separate incident at Northwick Park Hospital in late 1999, Dr Bright was accused of behaving rudely and aggressively towards the wife of a manic depressive patient, Mr M. Mrs M wrote a letter of complaint. The committee was told that when the psychiatrist next saw Mr M she told him about the letter and said his wife had lied about their meeting. Miss Sullivan said this was “reckless of the effect it would have had on his progress”.

Dr Bright also swore at Peter Jefferys, her medical director, during disciplinary proceedings which ended in her dismissal. She then threatened to sue Dr Jefferys for £2 million if he did not amend a job reference which referred to the incident with the nun.

Dr Bright denies serious professional misconduct. The hearing continues.

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