Pharmacy technician Shane Dixon, registration number 5100734, has been suspended a further six months following a previous four-month suspension for calling an autistic colleague a slur.
At a review hearing on March 4, the GPhC’s fitness-to-practise committee heard that Dixon “on one or more occasions made discriminatory comments” and “demonstrated bullying behaviour” towards a colleague, referred to in the document as “colleague 2”.
The hearing document said Dixon “referred to colleague 2, who was autistic”, using a slur.
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The GPhC said at the principal hearing that it had considered Dixon’s “struggles with his mental health” and “wider evidence of a poor workplace culture”.
But it decided that neither “excused his conduct” and that his behaviour “amounted to misconduct”.
“Bullying behaviour”
While Dixon did not attend the principal hearing, the regulator noted his earlier responses to the allegation, including that he did “not recall” ever calling colleague 2 the slur and did not “believe [he] would have done so repeatedly and in front of other staff members”.
He also said he had previously “enjoyed a good relationship with colleague 2” until he believed the colleague was told that Dixon had “implicated him in an incident of graffiti”.
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Dixon added that he believed colleague 2 had “been turned against him” and that “parts of his statement are completely fabricated”.
The committee acknowledged colleague 2’s evidence that he “was upset by the comments and eventually made a complaint to his manager”.
It found that Dixon’s conduct breached standards of the profession, particularly those concerning professionalism and leadership.
“Degree of insight”
Considering whether Dixon’s fitness to practise remained impaired, the review hearing committee said his conduct “was capable of being addressed” and that “some aspects” of his written responses “suggested a degree of insight into the seriousness of the allegation”.
It noted that he did “take responsibility for his negative behaviour generally and its effect on colleagues”.
And it added that Dixon was described by one witness as a “competent pharmacy technician” and that the misconduct “occurred some years ago”.
Risk of repeating
But the GPhC stressed that it “could not be sure” that Dixon “understands the seriousness of his misconduct and how it would have affected colleague 2’s experience at work” and confidence in his profession “more widely”.
It also found that he “brought the profession of pharmacy into disrepute” and “breached one of the fundamental principles of the profession of pharmacy”.
It added that Dixon, who “has not been in contact with the council and has provided no information”, has “done nothing” to “demonstrate that he has addressed the impairment of his fitness to practise sufficiently, or indeed at all”.
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He provided “no reflective statement” or evidence that he “attended any of the recommended training”, the regulator said, nor has he “supplied any testimonials or references”.
The committee also said it was “bound to conclude” that there “remained a risk that he could repeat his misconduct”.
“Disproportionate” to suspend
The GPhC decided that “it would still, at this time, be disproportionate” to remove Dixon from the register as he “should have a further chance to show remediation”.
And it concluded that a further six months of suspension “should be ample time” for Dixon to “re-engage with the council and remediate his misconduct”.
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“We therefore direct that the [GPhC] impose a suspension on Shane Dixon for a further period of six months, with a review,” it said.
Read the determination in full here.
