Dr Bawa-Garba can return to work

I agree jane on both points!

I would refuse to be treated by her; she was incompetent.

It is too much to expect anyone to be fully 'competent' in the intense, pressure-cooker environment that Dr Bawa-Garba found herself in that day. The department was severely stretched and under-staffed, and she was standing in for the consultant who should have been on call but had double-booked himself and was elsewhere. And she had just worked a 12 hour shift with no breaks.

She should never have been put in the position she was in and I was appalled that she carried the burden of blame for what happened.

It is absolutely right in my opinion that she has been reinstated. I wish her well.

No, she wasn't. She was put in an impossible position and grossly overworked and having to do too many things at once. That all her professional colleagues got together to support her and protest against her punishment for the reasons I give abve shows that they could see that she was seen as the victim of overwork.

After what she has been through I would trust her absolutely with any child in my care

eazybee she is a paeditrician, I doubt she would be qualified to treat you.

Having read about the case, I think it was the right decision to reinstate her with, of course, the right checks and balances in place given the length of her maternity leave and not having worked since 2015.
The official reports make for solemn reading but, given a 12 hour day, on call over 4 floors as well as her own team not following policy and not carrying out her requests plus computer system failure and no-one noting that the child's x-rays were available...is it really any wonder that these awful misdiagnoses occur?
There was also the inability (due to NHS guidelines) of agency nurses (paid at a much higher rate than f/t staff) to take part in or do some of the tasks required.
Frankly, as the doctor was a trainee, I think the consultant who 'forgot' he was on call should be called to account too.
I can understand the pain of the parents but, had it been me, I would not have taken a child who had vomiting and diahorrea all evening and night, to a GP surgery. Hospital should have been tbe first stop.
I hope Dr Bawa-Garba can get beyond the stigma bestowed on her by certain people and continue to study and make progress through the mess that is currently the NHS.

Thank you Gabriella. I agree.

As I stated a few days ago and was told repeatedly that I was wrong, this case shows that you can have a criminal conviction and still work as a doctor - yes maddyone I’m looking at you.

The problem she’ll have in finding work is the resource implications for any employer of her having to work under close supervision . Busy understaffed hospitals just don’t have the resources for this ime

maryeliza I imagine and would hope that the GMC will have put sufficient pressure on whichever Trust is involved, to ensure that she'll get good supervision and mentoring to help her overcome the difficulties she'll surely face. I think the GMC will have a say in and approve whatever supervision is decided on.
The Trust involved must know they are culpable and it just amazes me that they haven't been sanctioned, as far as I know.
But hey I expect 'lessons have been learned'

All that is true janea the point I was making is that to fulfil the criteria for close supervision means extra staff time is required. Not a criticism but a fact - time spent supervising her means time not doing what the supervising doctor should also be doing. Putting an extra doctor on to provide this function isn’t just about the money, it’s about even having a doctor available even if the money was in the budget.

Sacking the doctor would mean that her training thus far would have been wasted and there would be one less (potentially fully trained) doctor in the NHS.
I'm reasonably sure that this woman was not careless or negligent. Neither was she incompetent, per se.
Her competence in paediatrics was at a lower level than a fully trained doctor but she was having to replace the senior doc who had blindly double booked himself and forgotten that no-one had been designated to fulfil his on-call duties.
Add to that, the other mismanaged and overstretched staff who were roped in bank nurses and a team who, having been tasked with certain duties, did not report back to her.
One of those bank nurses gave the mother of the child permission to give him a GP prescribed medicine for her child's heart condition, a medicine that Dr Bawa-Garba did not want him to have as it would have had an adverse effect on the treatments and bolus she herself decided he needed.
It did indeed have an adverse effect.
The mother should have taken her son straight to hospital in the first place, knowing he was losing fluids at both ends and knowing he had a heart condition.
She made the wrong call in going to her GP but the outcome may well have been the same.
The doctor has, IMO, been hung out to dry.
A whipping boy for the Hospital Trust and mismanaged staffing levels.
They should be ashamed.

My sympathies are with the Adcock family. Mrs. Adcock:

" She made over 21 mistakes with my son that day. Her human errors, nothing to do with the system."

I find your criticisms of the mother quite unkind GG and unnecessary.

Yes eazy the doctor is not an innocent in all of this - she has much learning and reflection to do as do the Trust. Turning the case into something black and white is very dangerous imo..

I'm very glad she was reinstated. Impossible working conditions and her first day back after maternity leave. The Consultant should have taken much more responsibility.
A tragedy for this family but it was due to an institutional failure rather than due to only one individual.

Agreed, she was put in an impossible situation.

An article in the current BMJ with the title 'wha are doctors quitting in droves' explain how the NHS is putting incredible demands on doctors, as well as nursing staff.

Burn out for some, but mainly From the article "they pack their bags and take their highly developed skills across the ocean to embark on the same intensive career, treating similar patients, with similar healthcare needs. Is this a doctor who is burnt out? Burnt out of working in the NHS, yes."

The NHS is in meltdown as evidenced by several threads on here. Patients are suffering, the service is becoming less humane and more about money, or lack of it, and in a vicious circle we are losing medical staff in all areas, who are unable to cope. I worked all my professional life in the health service and feel sad that it has come to this, and scapegoating staff will make things much worse, when it is the system that is failing,

Indeed- and this will get worse in the current situation. The forecast brain drain will of course include the medical and nursing profession.

Easybee- what do you think would happen, in a busy ward or A&E, if you refused to be treated by a doctor?

I'd recommend an excellent book. Jodi Picoult 'Small Great Things'.