Baby P doctor secures delay to GMC hearing

THE doctor accused of failing to spot Baby P's broken back days before his death today won the first round in her legal battle to avoid a public disciplinary hearing.

Consultant paediatrician Dr Sabah Al-Zayyat has applied for "voluntary erasure" from the medical register. If she succeeds, the General Medical Council would not be able to hold a full misconduct hearing in public over her care of the toddler.

Earlier this week the GMC fitness to practise panel refused to accept that Dr Al-Zayyat was too ill to undergo such a hearing. She has claimed that she was "suicidal" and unfit to defend herself but panel chairman Ralph Bergmann said she was neither "genuinely or involuntarily incapacitated".

Dr Al-Zayyat's lawyers have challenged the GMC panel's decision in the High Court. Mary O'Rourke QC, said that the decision was "perverse" in the light of medical evidence. Mr Justice Kenneth Parker agreed to extend a stay on the GMC proceedings for three weeks so that a judicial review of the panel's decision can take place.

Dr Al-Zayyat, who is in Saudi Arabia, is set to be assessed by another psychiatrist tomorrow.

She examined 17-month-old Peter Connelly at St Ann's Hospital in Tottenham in August 2007, but allegedly decided not to carry out a full check up as he was "cranky".

Peter's mother, her boyfriend and another man were jailed last year for causing or allowing the toddler's death. Dr Al-Zayyat had her contract with Great Ormond Street Hospital terminated and has stated she will not work as a doctor in the UK in the future.