Bristol inquiry hears closing submissions

The inquiry into children's heart surgery services at the Bristol Royal Infirmary was urged last week to ask the General Medical Council to re-examine its "flawed conclusions" that three doctors were guilty of serious professional misconduct.

Christopher Sharpe QC, for the Surgeons' Support Group, made the plea as the inquiry heard closing submissions from lawyers for the parents' and surgeons' groups. Submissions were also made on behalf of John Roylance, former chief executive of United Bristol Healthcare NHS Trust, and James Wisheart, the senior heart sur- geon, both of whom were struck off the medical register by the GMC. The inquiry also heard submissions from lawyers for the trust and the Department of Health.

Mr Sharpe said that it was no coincidence that Bristol had for years been denied funding that would have provided a dedicated paediatric cardiac surgeon and allowed care to be provided at a single site.

"The medical profession cannot and must not be treated as scapegoats by governments who, in pursuit of lower taxes and we suspect electoral advantage, deny more resources and then seek to divert attention from the reasons for the service's failings." He asked the inquiry's chairman, Ian Kennedy, to invite the GMC "to revisit what we say are its flawed conclusions."

Robert Francis QC, for Dr Roylance, said that the former chief executive had been singled out by the GMC on the basis of incomplete information. He was never made aware that paediatric cardiac surgery was below an acceptable standard, as opposed to being in need of improvement. There was, he said, "a mosaic of knowledge from the marches of Wales to the centre of Whitehall, none of which was available to Dr Roylance."

Clare Dyer legal correspondent, BMJ


studentBMJ 2000;08:45-88 March ISSN 0966-6494