A FAMILY doctor who forged patient prescriptions to satisfy his addiction to strong painkillers has been cleared to work again as a GP, it has emerged.

Dr Robin Wade escaped being struck off by the General Medical Council (GMC), despite admitting four counts of obtaining property by deception, and asking for 18 similar offences to be taken into account, at Teesside Crown Court in June last year.

Dr Wade was suspended when the allegations came to light and later left the Moorlands Surgery, in Willow Road, Darlington, where he worked.

He has since returned to general practice and is now being employed by the Durham and Chester-le-Street Primary Care Trust.

In a statement to The Northern Echo the trust said: "Dr Robin Wade is currently working within Durham and Chester-le-Street Primary Care Trust under strict conditions imposed on him by the GMC and is being monitored."

The trust refused to reveal where Dr Wade was working. It also said he had no comment to make at this time.

Dr Wade, from Darlington, wrote out prescriptions for codeine-based drugs in his patients' names without their knowledge.

He then signed the back of them, indicating that he was a representative of the person concerned, enabling him to dupe chemists into handing over painkilling drugs.

The GP was at one stage to injecting pethadine and morphine from his surgery's supply, such was his addiction.

He was said by a judge, who fined him but stopped short of jailing him, to have committed a "grave breach of trust" .

After his conviction, Dr Wade received pledges of support from ex-patients.

In a ruling last year, the GMC said that while Dr Wade's behaviour had fallen below expected professional standards, his actions had not directly affected his patients.

It said that having taken into account all the circumstances, it was sufficient enough to place strict conditions on his registration.

Last night, Catherine Murphy, of independent healthcare watchdog the Patients Association, said: "We would question somebody practising again under these circumstances, because there is always the danger that having committed these type of offences in the past there may be opportunities to repeat them, especially considering the pressures that GPs are under."