A HOSPITAL doctor has been allowed to return to work after being suspended for fraudulently prescribing highly addictive drugs to a close family member over several years. Dr Marta Kasztelewicz, who was based at Neath Port Talbot Hospital and Swansea’s Singleton Hospital, overprescribed the opioid painkiller codeine and the powerful anti-anxiety drug diazepam to a person with whom she had a “close personal relationship.”
Between August 2015 and December 2019, Dr Kasztelewicz issued inappropriate private prescriptions to this patient. According to a misconduct panel, some of the prescriptions were “excessive in quantity, duration, and frequency.” Additionally, in September 2019, she provided unauthorised treatment to the same patient at Singleton Hospital’s admissions unit, despite no longer having the authority to do so.
Concerns about Dr Kasztelewicz’s conduct were first raised in 2020. The following year, she accepted a police caution for issuing 64 fraudulent private prescriptions at Neath Port Talbot Hospital and for offences involving counterfeiting and computer misuse at the same facility. The panel heard that Dr Kasztelewicz had been “prescribing on behalf of Singleton Hospital when she no longer worked there” and had failed to disclose that the patient was a close family member. It was also revealed that she had attempted to “mislead” hospital staff in order to prioritise the patient’s treatment over other waiting patients. Her actions were deemed to have put the patient’s health at risk by prescribing potentially harmful quantities of addictive drugs.
Dr Kasztelewicz, who qualified from a German medical school in 2006 and later worked as a locum registrar at Singleton Hospital, served a five-month suspension for her misconduct. During a recent General Medical Council (GMC) panel hearing, she expressed deep regret for her actions. “I deeply regret the mistakes I have made and I am very sorry. I fully understand now what impact my actions had on the general public, the GMC, my colleagues, my patient, and myself,” she said. “I also understand now what circumstances and behavioural patterns in the relationship with [the patient] and my biography led to the situation. I feel I have gained significant insight and changed my life profoundly.”
Gillian Temple-Bone, the panel chairwoman, acknowledged Dr Kasztelewicz’s remorse and the steps she had taken to rehabilitate, noting that the doctor had completed several CPD (continuing professional development) courses. Ms Temple-Bone said the panel was “reassured” by the doctor’s plan to undergo work shadowing, which would allow her to “observe and reflect for a time before resuming employment.”
Dr Kasztelewicz told the panel that she intends to relocate to London, where she has secured an opportunity to shadow consultants at Queen Elizabeth Hospital before beginning work at St Mary’s Hospital. In the long term, she hopes to retrain as a GP.
Following these developments, the panel lifted her suspension, stating that Dr Kasztelewicz had shown sufficient “remorse and understanding” of her past actions.
