A PROMINENT psychiatrist who was criticised by a coroner yesterday for prescribing powerful drugs to a patient without her GP’s knowledge is being investigated by the General Medical Council.

Peter Rowan, founder of the eating disorders unit at the Priory Hospital in West London, was said to have blurred the boundary between personal and professional relationships in his treatment of Patricia May.

Miss May, 66, died of respiratory failure after a fall at her home in Mayfair in 2003. She left £1.5 million to Dr Rowan in her will.

Doctors at the Chelsea & Westminster Hospital completed her death certificate incorrectly and failed to refer her death to a coroner. Miss May’s remains were cremated and it was not until last year, when the executors of her estate raised questions, that the GMC and then police began to investigate the circumstances surrounding her death.

Westminster Coroner’s Court was told that Dr Rowan, 58, treated Miss May, a former model, for 16 years as a private patient at his consulting rooms in Sloane Street, West London. He had prescribed large doses of antidepressants, anti-anxiety tablets and sleeping pills.

Gordon Atkinson, Miss May’s National Health Service GP, told the inquest that he was surprised and concerned that he had not known about the medication. He had been treating her for chronic lung disease and breathing difficulties, he said, and the drugs prescribed by Dr Rowan — Anafranil, lorazepam and temazepam — were respiratory depressants.

Dr Atkinson said he did not know that Miss May was being treated by Dr Rowan for anorexia nervosa. He added: “It would have been helpful to have known.”

In addition to the money bequeathed by Miss May to Dr Rowan, she gave him gifts of £50,000 in November 1996 and £100,000 in May 1997.

Dr Rowan drafted a letter for Miss May to copy to his tax office which stated that she had made the payments because of “the high esteem in which I hold our friendship”.

It emphasised that the money was not for professional services.

Friends of Miss May told the inquest at a hearing last month that she was infatuated with Dr Rowan.

Paul Knapman, the Westminster Coroner, said that Dr Rowan had vehemently denied any wrongdoing or impropriety and that he accepted those denials.

He added: “An unfortunate element [of the case] has been the blurring of the distinction between a platonic friendship on the one hand and a doctor-patient relationship on the other.

“It is the more unfortunate when the prescription of quite powerful drugs is involved, especially when record-keeping seems inadequate and the GP was not informed.”

The coroner said, however, that given the lapse of time there was insufficient evidence to determine the exact cause of death or whether the drugs prescribed to Miss May had contributed to her condition.

“Unfortunately this case was not reported to the coroner so no autopsy was performed, no analysis of blood was made and the body has been cremated,” he said.

“We simply do not know if she was taking Dr Rowan’s medication, irrespective of whether it had any bearing on her death.”

Dr Knapman concluded that Miss May had died of respiratory failure brought on by unknown causes and recorded an open verdict.

He said that there was no requirement for further police action, but added: “It is not the duty of this court to rule upon any ethical considerations raised in the course of evidence, still less the validity of the will. Any proceedings, if they occur at all, may follow this inquest.”

The GMC, which had an observer from its investigations team in court, said it would resume its inquiry into Dr Rowan’s conduct, which had been postponed pending police and coroner’s inquiries.

It said: “Our investigations will continue when all information has been gathered. It has been on hold. We will look at all issues, including those involving fitness to practice.”

Pamela Saulnier, Miss May’s half-sister who lives in the United States, was legally represented at the inquest. Tim Wallis, her solicitor, declined to comment beyond saying that he was preparing a report for his client.

Dr Rowan, who has been suspended from his post at the Priory, in Roehampton, pending an internal investigation, was not available for comment.

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