Doctor who sought to cover up cause of nine-year-old girl’s death is struck off

Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Fellow practitioners would consider Dr Steen’s behaviour in seeking to cover up the cause of Patient A’s death to be deplorable Sean Ell The tribunal accepted that Dr Steen, now retired, was “not attempting to conceal details of, or failings in, Patient A’s care in 1996/97, when she believed there was a viral cause of death”. Tribunal chair Sean Ell said this “misrepresentation” continued through the consultant paediatrician’s involvement with Claire’s parents, at a coroner’s inquest – ordered after the documentary screening – and the public inquiry itself. “Honesty and integrity are key to public confidence in the medical profession and the tribunal determined that a finding of current impairment was necessary in order to maintain public confidence in the profession and to uphold proper standards of conduct and behaviour in the profession.” The tribunal also found Dr Steen’s failure to report the sudden and unexpected death of a child in hospital to the coroner “fell seriously below the standard expected”. “It was satisfied that Dr Steen, through her dishonesty, had failed to maintain the high standards expected within the profession, and her conduct is incompatible with continued registration as a doctor.” The hyponatraemia public inquiry concluded in 2018 that Claire’s death was the result of “negligent care” from an overdose of fluids and medication.