Inhumane to strike me off for boy’s death, claims doctor

THE GMC’S decision to strike off a doctor whose errors led to a child’s death was not “humane”, a court heard.

Hadiza Bawa-garba is challenging a High Court ruling to substitute erasure for the lesser sanction of a year’s suspension imposed by the Medical Practitioners Tribunal (MPT).

The ruling was made following a successful appeal by the General Medical Council (GMC), which argued that suspension was “not sufficient” to protect the public or maintain public confidence in the medical profession.

Jack Adcock, six, from Glen Parva, Leicestershire – who had Down’s syndrome and a known heart condition – died at Leicester Royal Infirmary in 2011 after he developed sepsis.

After a 2015 trial at Nottingham Crown Court, Dr Bawa-garba was sentenced to two years in prison suspended for two years for manslaughter by gross negligence.

At the Court of Appeal yesterday, James Laddie QC, Dr Bawa-garba’s counsel, told Lord Burnett, the Lord Chief Justice, Sir Terence Etherton, the Master of the Rolls, and Lady Justice Rafferty that in the 70th anniversary year of the NHS, the case had turned out to be “something of a lightning rod for the dissatisfaction of doctors and medical staff in this country”.

The MPT’S decision was “humane and balanced”, he added.

Ivan Hare QC, for the GMC, said the High Court was correct to decide that the MPT failed to apply the relevant fitness to practise rules of the GMC.

The hearing continues.