Dr Heather Steen's bid to be removed from register rejected

Nine-year-old Claire Roberts died in Belfast's Royal Hospital for Sick Children in 1996

A doctor's bid to be voluntarily removed from the medical register on health grounds has been rejected.

It means Dr Heather Steen, who is accused of failings following the death of Claire Roberts in 1996, will still face a fitness to practice tribunal.

The tribunal would have been halted if she had been removed from the register, as she would no longer have been a doctor.

The hearing is due to resume on Tuesday.

It had been paused after Dr Steen's lawyers said their client was applying to be removed from the register, but on Monday the application was rejected by The Medical Practice Tribunal.

Claire Roberts died at the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children, where Dr Steen worked, in October 1996.

The nine-year-old's death was examined as part of the hyponatraemia inquiry.

Her father Alan said his family welcomed the decision to refuse the paediatrician's application.

He said the tribunal hearing was "in the public interest" and should proceed "to maintain public confidence in the medical profession, the regulatory process and to ensure that professional standards are upheld".

"An unsuccessful attempt has been made by Dr Steen to prevent evidence being heard in public," Mr Roberts said in a statement.

Dr Heather Steen, pictured in 2009, denied there had been a cover-up in Claire Roberts' death

The hyponatraemia inquiry, which examined the role of several doctors, investigated the deaths of three children in hospital and two other children, including Claire , who died while receiving hospital care.

Claire was referred by her GP to hospital doctors after showing symptoms of vomiting and drowsiness.

She died after being given an overdose of fluids and medication.

• Timeline of hyponatraemia inquiry

Dr Steen denied claims of a cover-up around Claire's death when she gave testimony to the hyponatraemia inquiry in 2012.

Dr Steen's tribunal is inquiring into allegations that between October 1996 and May 2006, she knowingly and dishonestly carried out several actions to conceal the true circumstances of the child's death.