Dr Hadiza Bawa-Garba: BMA calls GMC legal costs 'unacceptable'

Dr Hadiza Bawa-Garba won her appeal to practise medicine again in August

The medical regulator spent nearly £30,000 in legal fees trying to get a doctor struck off, it has emerged.

In 2015, Dr Hadiza Bawa-Garba was found guilty of gross negligence manslaughter over the death of Jack Adcock.

The General Medical Council (GMC) pushed for her dismissal, rather than suspension, at the High Court before the decision was overturned at the Court of Appeal.

The British Medical Association (BMA) called the spending "unacceptable".

The GMC said it had a duty to protect patient safety and was "frequently called upon to make difficult decisions".

Jack, aged six, died at Leicester Royal Infirmary in 2011 when undiagnosed sepsis led to cardiac arrest

Six-year-old Jack, who had Down's syndrome and a heart condition, died from a cardiac arrest caused by sepsis 11 hours after being admitted to hospital with vomiting and diarrhoea in 2011.

Prosecutors in Dr Bawa Garba's criminal trial said Jack's death was caused by "serious neglect" by staff.

Dr Bawa-Garba's defence said she had worked a 12-hour shift with no break and there was a lot of miscommunication in the ward, but she was convicted and received a two-year suspended prison sentence.

Last June, the GMC's own Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) suspended her from the medical register for a year.

But the GMC appealed against the decision and in January at the High Court, she was struck off.

Dr Bawa-Garba subsequently took her case to the Court of Appeal and in August won her bid to be reinstated.

The case provoked anger among medics who suggested "honest mistakes" could mean they are struck off, while wider pressures had been ignored.

A freedom of information request by the Press Association showed the GMC's legal fees in relation to the hearing before the High Court amounted to £11,974.75, and its Court of Appeal costs were £17,412.

A review of the case recommended the GMC should lose its right to appeal against fitness to practise decisions by the MPTS.

Dr Chaand Nagpaul, the BMA's chairman of council, said: "For the regulator - which is funded by doctors' compulsory fees - to spend money on challenging the findings of the MPTS, causing extreme distress to Dr Bawa-Garba personally and the profession more widely, only for the initial decision to be reinstated at the Court of Appeal, is unacceptable."

He added that the GMC has "serious work to do" to regain the trust and confidence of doctors.

A GMC spokesman said: "We recognise the anger felt by many doctors about this case, but we take our responsibilities seriously and in fulfilling them we do all we can to keep our costs down."

Meanwhile, GMC chief executive Charlie Massey told the Health Select Committee it was a tragic, complex and unusual case.

He said: "The reason I took the decision I did was that I had very clear legal advice at the time that the MPTS had got it wrong in law by reaching a different view about the culpability of the doctor that had been established in the criminal court."

He added that "many lessons" had been learned but did not say the GMC would concede its right to appeal against MPTS decisions.