Pressure Of Work Drove NHS Dentist To Suicide

A dentist who took on a list of 1,500 NHS patients killed herself after succumbing to the pressures of work, an inquest heard. Ingrid Gill, 46, who resigned after falling ill, took an overdose of anti-depressants and whisky.

Mrs Gill had become distressed at being the only NHS dentist at the practice, the inquest was told. She started work at the Birdgate Dental Practice, in Pickering, North Yorks, in 2005. Michael Oakley, the coroner, heard that Mrs Gill, of Thornton Dale, North Yorks, felt let down after being forced to resign from the NHS list after suffering with ill health.

Her husband of 17 years, Ian Gill, also a dentist, told the inquest that his wife received little support from the practice’s owners, who had been without an NHS dentist for some time.

He told the hearing that his wife’s health began to suffer and she was eventually taken to hospital with colitis, a debilitating inflammatory disease of the lower intestine. Rather than offer support, the inquest was told, one of the owners of the practice asked Mrs Gill to resign.

Mr Gill said: “That was the worst thing that happened. They used my wife’s illness to detach their NHS patients, but she was too poorly to care. Quite frankly the pressure really got to her. She felt guilty and let down and thought she was on her own. She decided she didn’t want anything more to do with practice.”

The inquest heard that Mrs Gill, who resigned in November 2005, also found out she had breast cancer around this time. “The couple opened their own practice and an art gallery, but Mrs Gill continued to receive treatment for anxiety.

Mr Gill said she had given him no indication that she would harm herself on the day before her death and, although she left him a letter, he did not interpret it as a suicide note. He told the hearing: “When I found the letter in the evening, I read into it that she was desperate for some peace and suspected she had driven away.”

A post-mortem examination revealed she had taken an overdose of the antidepressant dotheipin with alcohol. The inquest at Pickering magistrates’ court heard Mrs Gill was found dead in her car by a park ranger in Dalby Forest on Jan 2 this year. The coroner recorded a verdict of suicide.