A FAMILY doctor has spoken of the "great support" of his patients after the General Medical Council found him guilty of serious professional misconduct over a failed nursing home venture in Maidstone. Dr Azhar Mir, a GP at Chatham's Wayfield Road surgery, will still be allowed to practise despite the decision of the council's professional conduct committee.

The committee, sitting in London, had been told that Danefield Nursing Home in Church Lane, Bearsted, had insufficient bathrooms, bad furnishing, poor hygiene, and inadequate fire precautions.

But speaking at the weekend, Dr Mir, 64, of Walderslade Road, Chatham, insisted he had an unblemished record as a doctor and that the charges related to administrative failings. He had denied the misconduct charge.

"The buck stopped with me as the owner, but I was not involved with the day-to-day running of the home," he said. "Being a doctor I should have taken more responsibility, but I do not accept I was guilty of serious professional misconduct.

"The important thing to mention is that none of the patients at the home were my patients. They belonged to other GPs in the area. They could have raised their concerns."

The General Medical Council was only able to take proceedings against him because, as the owner of the home, he was also a doctor. He claimed he started to improve the 32-bed home when he took it over with his wife in 1995, improving its reputation.

Day trips to Leeds Castle and France, barbecues, swimming lessons and professional entertainers were among the couple's innovations. But after Kent Health Authority officials obtained a court order, the home closed in 1998.

Dr Mir added: "I am not embarrassed. I am very relieved at the decision. Patients come up to me to offer their great support. I have had letters from nursing home relatives supporting me."

But, delivering the decision, Eileen Walker, the professional conduct committee's chairman, told Dr Mir: "You have shown an alarming lack of insight into your failings and your responsibility to ensure good quality care." Mrs Walker said the committee had taken into account the "failings in the standards of your professionalism" that had taken place outside Dr Mir's work as a GP.

Before the committee reached its decision, his counsel, Andrew Hockton, said Dr Mir had come close to bankruptcy since Danefield was closed.

In its judgement, the committee said it was concerned that as a result of Dr Mir's actions, "patients at the home had received inadequate care and treatment, had their health and safety and well-being compromised, and were not accorded the dignity and respect due to them."