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GPs to join overnight vigil on day of Bawa-Garba appeal

GPs and other medical professionals are set to hold an overnight vigil in support of Hadiza Bawa-Garba on the day her appeal is heard.

The vigil will be held at the Court of Appeal in London on 25 July – the same day as Dr Bawa-Garba’s appeal case is to begin.

The junior doctor, who was convicted of gross negligence manslaughter in 2015, was struck off the medical register by the GMC after a controversial High Court ruling earlier this year.

Dr Bawa-Garba was later allowed to appeal the decision on the basis that it met the second appeal test ‘in all respects’.

The second appeal test requires the case to ‘have a real prospect of success’ and ‘raise an important point of principle or practice’ or requires ‘some other compelling reason for the Court of Appeal to hear it’.

The vigil is being organised by March for Justice for Dr Hadiza Bawa-Garba, which previously organised a march in support of the junior doctor earlier this year.

According to their Facebook group, the organisation is ‘deeply concerned by the manslaughter conviction of our colleague Dr Bawa-Garba, who in our collective opinion have been scapegoated by the health service, GMC and media’.

They added: ‘Dr Bawa-Garba made mistakes, as any of us could do today or tomorrow.

‘To properly learn from these errors they must be viewed in the context within in which she was forced to work.

‘If we allow Jack Adcock’s death to be explained away by placing the blame solely on one individual, which will drastically reduce the chances of preventing similar deaths in future.’

Pulse’s front cover in March also showed GP solidarity with Dr Bawa-Garba, with some also sharing their stories of when they could have been in her position.

The GMC’s own tribunal had originally ruled that the doctor’s registration should be suspended for 12 months.