Doctor's bid to be removed from register rejected

A doctor's bid to be voluntarily removed from the medical register on health grounds has been rejected.

It means Dr Heather Steen, who is accused of failings following the death of Claire Roberts in 1996, will still face a fitness to practice tribunal.

The tribunal would have been halted if she had been removed from the register, as she would no longer have been a doctor.

Claire Roberts died at the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children, where Dr Steen worked, in October 1996.

The nine-year-old's death was examined as part of the hyponatraemia inquiry.

Her father Alan said his family welcomed the decision to refuse the paediatrician's application.

He said the tribunal hearing was "in the public interest" and should proceed "to maintain public confidence in the medical profession, the regulatory process and to ensure that professional standards are upheld".

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Source: BBC News, 28 March 2022