Doctor who did not spot Baby P injuries wins court fight

Consultant paediatrician Dr Sabah Al-Zayyat was yesterday granted a new opportunity to apply for "voluntary erasure" from the medical register on health grounds.

If she is successful, she would not have to appear at any disciplinary hearing.

The GMC claims granting the 54-year-old doctor's request would mean derailing the high-profile public misconduct investigation into her care of Baby P which is already under way but Mr Justice Mitting, sitting in London, ruled that a decision of a General Medical Council fitness to practise panel to reject her request for erasure was "perverse" and must be quashed.

He said Robert Englehart QC, appearing for the GMC, had accepted she was "not putting it on or faking it", and that she hyperventilated and suffered panic attacks when details of the Baby P case were discussed.

The judge ruled there was "no sufficient evidential basis" for its decision to reject her claim that she was "genuinely or involuntarily incapacitated" and ordered that her case be reconsidered by a fresh panel.

Mr Englehart had also accepted as genuine her claim that she was "extremely distressed and felt tortured mentally" and was "a broken-down person".

The judge said he was far from convinced that the disciplinary hearing could not go ahead, even if she did not participate.

Dr Al-Zayyat examined 17-month-old Baby P – now named as Peter Connelly – at a child development clinic at St Ann's Hospital in Tottenham, north London, on August 1 2007.

But she allegedly missed his injuries after deciding she could not carry out a full check-up because he was "miserable and cranky".

A post-mortem examination found he probably had a broken back and fractured ribs.

Two days later, Peter died at the hands of his mother, her boyfriend and his brother. They were all jailed in May last year.

The GMC accuses the doctor of knowing the toddler was on Haringey Council's child protection register but failing to carry out an adequate examination, failing to investigate the explanation offered for his injuries and failing to record whether she considered the possibility of child abuse.

Mary O'Rourke QC, appearing for Dr Al-Zayyat, accused the GMC panel of ignoring "overwhelming" psychiatric evidence that the doctor was genuinely incapacitated by her mental state and could not attend the hearing.

The mental health of the doctor, born in Saudi Arabia, had deteriorated to the point of breakdown after the Old Bailey trial of Baby P's mother and boyfriend.