Obstetrician who pressured patient into a forceps delivery avoids suspension

A consultant obstetrician who put pressure on an unwilling patient into having a forceps delivery, and who failed to obtain informed consent, has won a High Court appeal against a decision to suspend her from the UK medical register for three weeks.1Last year a medical practitioners tribunal found Premila Thampi’s fitness to practise to be impaired but accepted in mitigation that it was an isolated incident that had occurred in 2016 and no further concerns had been raised about her practice since then, she had remediated and expressed remorse, and was a “good and competent clinician.”2The tribunal decided in June 2025 to suspend her for three weeks after deciding that taking no action following a finding of impairment would require exceptional circumstances under the General Medical Council’s sanctions guidance.However, Thampi appealed the tribunal’s decision, and the case was taken to the High Court.In a ruling deputy High Court judge Andrew…