Speeding doctor keeps licence after saying NHS would suffer if she lost it
An A&E doctor has avoided a driving ban after speeding three times in 30mph zones because she said it would be ‘disastrous’ for the NHS.
Dr Juliet Bransby was caught doing 36mph twice on the same 30mph stretch of road in Liverpool in April and July last year.
The 46-year-old told the court that the NHS, including her colleagues and patients, would be impacted if her driving licence was taken away.
Bransby then committed a further speeding offence last August, going 36mph in a 30mph zone in another part of Liverpool.
The doctor, from Anfield, works as a locum at a hospital in Wrexham, North Wales, and was caught speeding on all three occasions in her Ford Transit Connect van.
She failed to provide driver details on the last occasion and received another six points on her licence.
The addition of three points from an earlier speeding offence meant she had a total of 15 points.
Bransby faced a mandatory six-month ban but appealed to the court in the Wirral, warning them that a lifetime ban would be disastrous for the NHS.
She added that her disability means she cannot use public transport to get to work as she can’t stand for more than five to ten minutes at a time, according to the Mail.
Speaking to the court, she said: ‘NHS is in the worst state I have seen it’ and if she couldn’t continue working this would ‘impact everyone’, adding that there’s no signs the NHS is ‘improving at the moment’ and she really needed to be able to commute to work.
Describing her current situation, Bransby said she has to drive about an hour to Wrexham for work, and she works three shifts a week, each of which usually lasts for between eight and ten hours.
Bransby told the court: ‘We need all hands at the deck and they need me. If I was not able to carry on, it would impact everyone.’
‘So many staff are off with stress after the fallout of the added pressure from Covid. Patients often wait for around 12 hours in A&E which is not safe.
‘It would be unsafe and unfair to them and there would be more pressure on my colleagues as well.’
Sharing details of her disability, Bransby said she has ‘recurrent patella dislocations to both knees’ and ‘two slipped discs in my lower back’.
A doctor said she is also currently being investigated for a neurological disorder.
Bransby said: ‘If I lose my driving licence, I would not be able to work. I drive to work and cannot use public transport, largely because of my mobility problems, especially with knee dislocations.
‘The slightest knock will cause a dislocation and I would not be able to work for weeks.’
The doctor said she had been looking for work that was closer, but she believes locum work at hospitals in Liverpool and the Wirral is already taken by permanent staff.
Bransby’s lawyer, Diana Przemecka, told the court: ‘You have heard yourself and seen today that Dr Bransby struggles with her mobility. She simply won’t be able to travel by public transport due to the risk to her health.
‘You have heard about the pressures in the NHS, that there’s a shortage of doctors and a shortage of NHS staff. You have heard that due to the pressures, and especially due to the Covid pandemic, more doctors are under stress and going off sick, putting more pressure on the hospitals.’
Ms Przemecka argued that in Bransby’s case, the ‘innocent parties’ are her colleagues, the hospital, the NHS and ‘most importantly’ A&E patients seeking emergency medical care.
‘If Dr Bransby is not able to work, they will wait longer and it may have a significant impact on their health. In the longer term it may be catastrophic for them,’ she said.
The magistrates decided not to disqualify Bransby from driving.
They fined her £332 for the two speeding offences and £750 more for not giving driver details. She was also ordered to pay £218 in costs and victim surcharge.
The Justices of the Peace told her: ‘We agree that this passes the exceptional hardship threshold and the reasons are that we accept that due to your disabilities there will be exceptional hardship if you were not able to get to work.
‘We also accept that if you lost your job, you could potentially lose your home and the impact on your current mental health could be quite detrimental to your well-being. Therefore, we are not going to disqualify you from driving.
‘You are not disqualified but you still have 15 points on your licence. If you commit another traffic offence you will be disqualified.
‘You cannot use the argument you used today in the next three years. I would say that you need to be driving very carefully for the next three years.’
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