Paediatricians condemn treatment of Bawa-Garba

Paediatricians have denounced the criminal prosecution of Hadiza Bawa-Garba for gross negligence manslaughter, warning that the decision undermines safe care because it inhibits learning from errors.

Doctors attending the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health’s annual general meeting in Glasgow unanimously passed a motion on 15 March saying, “This College considers [that] the criminal prosecution of dedicated doctors for gross negligence manslaughter, following systemic errors, impairs the advancement of safe healthcare for patients.”

An explanatory note said that Bawa-Garba’s conviction, and the General Medical Council’s (GMC) successful appeal to the High Court to erase her from the medical register after the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service had decided not to strike her off,1 “not only inhibits learning from errors, but fails to understand the …