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Police ‘to discuss’ calls to prosecute hospital over Bawa-Garba case

Police and prosecutors are in discussion whether to charge University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust regarding the death of 6-year-old Jack Adcock.

The British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin has written to Leicestershire Police regarding the case involving Dr Hadiza Bawa-Garba, detailing the problems at the hospital that could amount to a ’gross breach of the trust’s duty of care to the patient’.

Leicester police have said that they have received a letter from the BAPIO concerning the death of Jack Adcock and will be ’discussing its contents with the Crown Prosecution Service.’

The case has rocked medicine after Dr Bawa-Garba was struck off by the GMC following a High Court trial, having originally been allowed to continue practising by the Medical Practitioners Tribunal (MPTS).

Dr Bawa-Garba had been found guilty of gross negligence manslaughter in 2015. She  was a registrar at the Children’s Assessment Unit at Leicester Royal Infirmary on 18 February 2011, and the most senior doctor on the shift, when a six-year-old child with sepsis died. Dr Bawa-Garba continued to work at the hospital trust up until she was convicted by a Crown Court Jury in November 2015.

But the case sparked anger within the medical community, with hundreds of doctors writing to the GMC to voice their concerns that its actions would lead to ‘criminalisation of clinical error’ and worsen patient safety.

BAPIO’s letter highlights multiple systemic failures identified in the trust investigation, and pointed out that the MPTS had taken the trust’s role and contribution to this death into consideration.

The letter, which Pulse has seen, details organisational failures and breaches in the trust’s duty of care surrounding the death of Jack Adcock.

A spokesperson for Leicestershire Police said: ’We have received a letter from the BAPIO (British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin) concerning the tragic death of Jack Adcock and will be discussing its contents with the Crown Prosecution Service.’

A spokesperson for the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust said: ‘We understand that the Police have received a letter from the BAPIO and will be discussing it with the CPS. We await the outcome of those discussions.’

Dr Ramesh Mehta, president of BAPIO, said: ’The case has already sent shock waves around all medical establishments and the NHS. The GMC must now urgently inform employers that no medical trainee must work in an unsafe service and ensure that all medical practitioners are made aware that they must work within their defined limits of clinical responsibilities

’We expect the GMC to review the future role of its own legal arm, the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service, which it has publicly rebuked over this case. In view of the electronic portfolio of Dr Bawa-Garba being used as an instrument to prosecute her, the GMC should also make sure that trainee portfolios and medical appraisal documentation are discontinued with immediate effect until there is clarity on whether these are public property.’