Hi °C | Lo °C A doctor accused of failing to spot that Baby P had a broken back days before his death will launch a High Court battle to avoid a public disciplinary hearing on health grounds.
Consultant paediatrician Dr Sabah Al-Zayyat applied earlier this month for “voluntary erasure” from the medical register.
If she had been successful, this would have avoided the need for a full misconduct hearing.
But her application was rejected on Monday at a meeting of a General Medical Council fitness to practise panel.
Chairman Ralph Bergmann said: “The panel considers that to accede to the application for voluntary erasure would avoid a public, and necessary, examination of the facts of this case.”
Yesterday Dr Al-Zayyat made an urgent application at London's High Court for permission to seek judicial review of that decision.
Mary O'Rourke, Dr Al-Zayyat's counsel, is arguing that the panel's decision is “perverse” in the light of medical evidence that the doctor is not well enough to participate in the hearing.
