A doctor who was jailed for a string of attacks on police officers and hospital workers has been banned from returning to work.

Dr Karen Clark, 36, turned to theft and violence after spiralling into alcoholism and has served two prison sentences.

On one occasion while off duty she violently assaulted four nurses after being taken to Crosshouse Hospital in Kilmarnock for treatment.

She punched one nurse in the head, kicked another, dug her nails into the arm of a third and pushed a fourth.

During other incidents, the hospital medic, who worked at Glasgow Royal Infirmary, attacked police officers and was found drunk behind the wheel of her car.

In November last year she was jailed for eight months for breaching community payback orders imposed for theft and housebreaking and a sheriff warned her she would end up dead if she didn't deal with her alcohol problem.

Dr Clark, from Irvine, Ayrshire, was suspended from working in the profession for 12 months by the Medical Practitioner Tribunal Service(MPTS) last year.

At a review hearing earlier this month, the MPTS disciplinary panel decided to extend her suspension for another year and warned she could be struck off if she does not change her behaviour.

Marianne O'Kane, the tribunal chairwomen, said: "In the absence of any evidence that Dr Clark has expressed remorse or gained any insight into the circumstances that led to her convictions and indeed with evidence of re-offending, there remains a risk of recurrence.

"The tribunal considers that in light of the lack of new information, Dr Clark would be a risk to patients if she was permitted to practise medicine and public confidence would be undermined.

"Therefore, in all the circumstances, the tribunal has determined that Dr Clark’s fitness to practise continues to be impaired by reason of her convictions.

"The tribunal gave very careful consideration to erasure as a potential sanction in this case, but concluded that it would be disproportionate at this point. It considers that Dr Clark convictions are still potentially remediable if she demonstrates the necessary insight and engages promptly with the regulator and her representatives."

Dr Clark failed to turn up at the hearing and the tribunal heard she has not been in touch with her solicitors for three months.

The medic has detailed her fight against booze addiction in a blog titled 'Karen Clark: a young female doctor shares her journey into recovery from addiction'.

She described how she became addicted to alcohol in her twenties and had spells in rehab after her life began to spiral out of control.

She wrote: "I am Karen. I am an alcoholic and most likely an addict. My substance of choice is alcohol. It has taken me to a place that I can only describe as hell.

"I am a medical doctor (emergency medicine). I discovered alcohol when I was 15. I can only describe taking that first sip as the most amazing euphoric feeling I thought was possible.

"My alcoholism really took off in my 20's. I functioned for a long time. In the past year I have been in accidents, horribly compromising situations, I have had countless hospital detoxes."

Dr Clark was working as a senior registrar in the emergency department at Glasgow Royal Infirmary when her life began to spiral out of control.

She was jailed for a total of nine months at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court in April, 2015.

The jail sentence was imposed after she admitted assaulting the four nurses and four police officers during separate incidents in July, 2014.

She also pled guilty to two counts of threatening and abusive behaviour in April, 2014.

In May last year, she admitted breaking into a hair salon in Ardrossan, Ayrshire, and stealing money, a set of straighteners and hair products in February 2016.

She also pleaded guilty to being found at a pub in the town in circumstances reasonably suggesting the intention of theft.

Sheriff Iona McDonald gave her 18 months supervision with an alcohol treatment requirement and told her: "If you don't deal with the alcohol issue you'll end up dead."

Dr Clark graduated in medicine from Dundee University in 2006 and has worked at a number of other NHS hospitals in Glasgow, Dumfries and Ayrshire during her career.