George Osborne’s brother ‘gave drugs to addict’

The younger brother of the Shadow Chancellor George Osborne faces being struck off the medical register for writing a prescription to a cocaine-addicted friend using a fictitious patient's name. Dr Adam Osborne, a 33-year-old psychiatrist, is also accused of giving his then girlfriend a prescription for contraceptive pills without telling her GP.

Both alleged misdemeanours came up yesterday when Osborne appeared before a General Medical Council (GMC) panel in London. The case is considered an embarrassment to his elder brother, with only weeks to go before the general election, not to mention his parents, Sir Peter and Lady Osborne. It is understood that lawyers representing the doctor attempted to have the hearing held in private but their request was turned down by the GMC.

The allegations date back to the period June 2006 to May 2008 when Osborne was a trainee psychiatrist at Wythenshawe Hospital (above) near Manchester.

The GMC panel heard that on May 12, 2008, a young woman referred to as Miss B was admitted to the Manchester Royal Infirmary suffering from "psychotic symptoms associated with the side effects of cocaine". Miss B, who some reports claim turned to prostitution to finance her cocaine habit, said she had taken quetiapine, used to treat schizophrenia, which had been supplied to her by Osborne.

She then discharged herself from the Royal Infirmary and headed to the Wythenshawe Hospital to find Osborne. She was said to be "hysterical". But she refused formal psychiatric care and Osborne decided to treat her himself.

Neither Osborne nor Miss B wanted their real names to appear on the records so he went to the hospital pharmacy and wrote a prescription using an "entirely fictitious name", the panel was told. However, because the computer system did not recognise the false name, the drugs were not issued.

Osborne then came up with an alternative plan. Bernadette Baxter, for the GMC, told the GMC panel: "The couple left the hospital and made their way to a pharmacy close to Osborne's home where he wrote a private prescription for the necessary drugs - haloperidol, an anti-psychotic, and iorazepam, a tranquilliser."

Baxter described Osborne's behaviour as "a quite deliberate act designed to deliberately conceal the identity of the patient".

In the case of his girlfriend, Osborne was said to have prescribed Bangladeshi-born Rahala Noor with contraceptive pills - but without reporting the fact to her GP, which he was obliged to do. Noor has since become his wife, after he converted to Islam in order to marry her.

Osborne is now working as a psychiatrist at the John Howard Centre in Hackney, east London. The GMC claims his conduct was "inappropriate, misleading and not of the standards expected of a reasonably competent medical practitioner". Osborne admits prescribing medication to Miss B and his wife, but denies that his actions were misleading or dishonest, or that his fitness to practise medicine is impaired as a result.

The hearing is expected to continue for several days. ·