BMJ  2007;334:385 (24 February), doi:10.1136/bmj.39133.551852.DB

News

Southall's files to be legally scrutinised

Clare Dyer, legal correspondent

BMJ

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The attorney general, Lord Goldsmith, is to review 4450 "special" files kept on patients and former patients by the paediatrician David Southall amid fears that he may not have disclosed all the material he had when he acted as a prosecution witness in criminal trials.

The review, which is expected to take six months, will also examine all the criminal trials in which Professor Southall acted as a witness for the prosecution in the past 10 years.

A hearing by the General Medical Council into charges that Professor Southall kept "what amounted to secret medical records" on four children ran out of time last December and has been adjourned until November this year.

The consultant paediatrician is thought to have created 4450 "special" files, not placed with hospital medical records, during his time at London's Royal Brompton Hospital and in his current post at North Staffordshire Royal Infirmary in Stoke-on-Trent.

. . . [Full text of this article]


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