Pharmacist Snehlata Jayantilal Vora, registration number 2017737, has been suspended from the professional register for six months after refusing to supply a patient with prescription medication until she paid £2.99 for damaged goods.

Ms Vora deliberately withheld the inhaler after the patient accidentally knocked over a basket of powder compacts in the pharmacy, the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) found at a fitness-to-practise hearing on January 25.

Ms Vora consistently denied blackmailing or keeping medication from the patient, but the GPhC dismissed her testimonial as "highly improbable" and ruled to suspend her with immediate effect.

The GPhC stressed that Snehlata Jayantilal Vora, registration number 2017737, had put commercial interests above her professional ethics	More fitness-to-practise cases Pharmacist struck off for stealing £15k 'for sister's       kidney op' Co-op manager suspended for 'cowardly' assault Pharmacist struck off after illegal POMs sales
	The patient, who was not named, entered Ms Vora's pharmacy in June 2011 to collect a prescription for four inhalers. While making the collection, she knocked over a basket of cosmetic compacts on sale for £2.99, the panel heard.

When Ms Vora asked the patient to pay the price of two compacts, the patient only agreed to pay £3. Ms Vora then removed one of her inhalers from the prescription bag and said she would only dispense the item once the full amount was paid, the committee heard.

The patient phoned her GP to ask whether it was legal to withhold medication and also told her husband, who rang Ms Vora to complain that evening. But the issue was not resolved by the next day, so the patient contacted the GPhC for advice.

The GPhC advised her to return to the pharmacy and ask for the medication again. This time, the patient took a work colleague with her to the pharmacy. But Ms Vora still refused to dispense the medication until she received a further £2.99 payment and the patient said she was "abusive and aggressive", eventually shouting: "Get out of my shop, you bitches."

Later that day, the patient made a written complaint about Ms Vora to the GPhC.

When contacted by the GPhC, Ms Vora "resolutely denied" the allegations and claimed the patient had simply not realised she had dispensed all medication listed on the prescription. She also accused the patient of being aggressive towards her. Patient testimonials spoke of Ms Vora "in glowing terms", describing her as professional, kind and helpful, and willing to go the extra mile, the GPhC said.

But the committee ruled that it was "highly improbable" that Ms Vora had dispensed all the medication without the patient realising. And although the regulator noted that the patient had another available inhaler, so was not at immediate risk, it stressed that Ms Vora had put commercial interests above her professional ethics.

The incident went "far, far beyond" a momentary lapse in professionalism, the GPhC fitness-to-practise committee said. It stressed that Ms Vora had "stubbornly" refused to dispense the inhaler and had expressed "no remorse and no regret" for her actions. She had also been the subject of four other separate patient complaints between September 2009 and March 2010.

The GPhC ruled that a suspension period of six months was the minimum necessary for Ms Vora to "absorb and reflect" on her misconduct.

Read the full fitness-to-practise case here.

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