Jitendra Desai, registration number 2048785, was issued a 12-month suspension by the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) after disposing of medicines in a public park and attending work “whilst unfit”.
At hearings between June 24 and July 2, the GPhC’s fitness-to-practise committee heard that Desai “disposed of an unknown quantity of medication and confidential pharmacy waste” in an “unsafe manner” in or around a park in Heswall, Wirral, in 2024.
According to the hearing document, the pharmacist also earlier that year “attended work whilst unfit” after consuming alcohol.
Read more: Pharmacy tech suspended over undisclosed assault conviction
The committee acknowledged that Desai had admitted to discarding the waste in the park.
But it stressed that while there was no evidence of harm to patients or the public, “serious harm” could have been caused by his conduct.
“Appeared drunk”
The GPhC said Desai was working as the responsible pharmacist at Oakley Pharmacy in Heswall between January 2023 and December 2024.
In September 2024, a concern was raised with a GP practice occupying the same site as the pharmacy, and two witnesses who worked at the practice - Dr M and Ms K - spoke to Desai and observed “his presentation”.
Read more: Pharmacist suspended after police caution for stealing drugs
According to Dr M, Desai “appeared drunk”, was “unsteady on his feet when walking round” and was “slurring his words”.
Dr M added that Desai’s “breath smelt of mints”, and Ms K noted that when she saw him, he was “sat in his chair slumped”.
The regulator said Desai “denied that he had been drinking, but declined to take a breathalyser test” that the GP surgery had available onsite.
Read more: Suspended after not reporting cannabis driving conviction
The committee also heard that in December 2024, a GPhC inspector was contacted by a park ranger for Wirral Council, Mr S, about “some dumped waste recovered from a park in Heswall”.
The inspector’s search of the waste uncovered a number of different medicines, including the controlled drugs zolpidem and lorazepam and prescription-only medicines (POMs) such as finasteride and amoxicillin.
One of the inspector’s business cards was discovered along with other material that allowed him to connect the waste with Desai’s pharmacy, which was located “less than one mile” from the park.
Read more: Pharmacist gets motorbike ban over ‘recklessly high speeds’
The material included “printed email correspondence” between Desai and one of the GPhC’s case officers that would “further link” Desai with the dumping of the waste, and a near miss log featuring pharmacy staff details.
The GPhC cited emails between the inspector and Mr S that showed that the dumped waste also appeared to include “empty bottles of alcohol”.
Read more: Pharmacist suspended for failing to report driving convictions
It said that one of its case officers contacted Desai about the waste in April 2025, and he admitted he was “responsible for leaving the items in the woods”.
The inspector told the committee that the controlled drugs “had to be taken to a local pharmacy for secure disposal”, and that the recovered waste included POMs “which could have been misused if recovered by a member of the public”.
Regulatory history
The GPhC noted that no confidential patient details were found discarded in the park, and that Desai had “accepted that he should leave the pharmacy” when Dr M asked him to do so.
But it pointed out that Desai has a regulatory history, including a GPhC investigating committee warning from 2012 for “not having informed the council of two separate convictions for drink driving offences”.
Read more: Pharmacist warned after failing to record 300 flu vaccines
There were also findings at a principal hearing in 2019 “relating to attending work whilst unfit to do so”, it added.
And it said that given his history with the GPhC, Desai “would have known about the regulatory consequences of his conduct”.
The committee concluded that a period of suspension on Desai’s right to practise, along with a review before the suspension’s end, will “satisfactorily mark the seriousness and nature” of the regulator’s findings.
Read more: Pharmacist suspended for suppling Xanax ‘to overseas charities’
It said a 12-month suspension “will be proportionate to the seriousness of the concerns” and may also give Desai “sufficient time to prepare for the review”.
And it added that removal from the register “remains an option” for the regulator at the review if Desai is “not able to demonstrate full, or at least significant steps towards, appropriate insight and remediation in relation to the serious failings found proved by this committee”.
Read the determination in full here.
