- Trainee paediatrician Hadiza Bawa-Garba was struck off for her mistakes
- She committed manslaughter in relation to six-year-old Jack Adcock
- But experts say many of the errors were ‘systemic’ hospital failures
- The case has provoked the ire of doctors worried about their own mistakes
Dr Hadiza Bawa-Garba, was found guilty of gross negligence manslaughter over the death of a six-year-old Jack Adcock – she has now been struck off
GP leaders have declared they have no confidence in the General Medical Council after its decision to strike off a doctor whose mistakes resulted in a boy dying from sepsis.
Hadiza Bawa-Garba, a trainee paediatrician, made a series of errors while looking after six-year-old Jack Adcock and was convicted of manslaughter through gross negligence in 2015.
Experts say many of the errors were caused by ‘systemic failures’ at her hospital, the Leicester Royal Infirmary.
The case has provoked an outcry among doctors worried about reporting their own mistakes for fear of suffering the same fate, prompting thousands to sign a petition.
Doctors on Friday night defied their union bosses to back a motion of no confidence in the GMC at an annual meeting of GP leaders in Liverpool.
They also called for the GP committee of their union the British Medical Association to demand a review by the parliamentary health select committee, Pulse magazine reported.
Jack Adcock, 6, died of sepsis after the trainee doctor mistakenly marked him as ‘do not resuscitate’
Dr Zoe Norris, a BMA subcommittee chairman, said: ‘GPs have lost all confidence in the ability of the GMC to be objective and to genuinely balance patient safety against the reality of being a doctor in the modern NHS.’
The doctors want to establish a system ‘whereby GPs can make collective statements of concern regarding unsafe care’.
Jack died on February 18, 2011 – 11 hours after he was admitted to hospital.
Dr Bawa-Garba had just returned from 13 months of maternity leave and was covering the roles of three doctors and looking after patients on six wards.
Her errors included wrongly diagnosing Jack with gastroenteritis. When he suffered a septic shock, leading to a call for doctors to revive him, he was mixed up with a discharged patient who had a ‘do not resuscitate’ instruction on his notes.
Dr Bawa-Garba was given a 12-month suspension by the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service but the GMC went to the High Court to overturn this and she was struck off in January.