Parents of children wrongly diagnosed with epilepsy by a consultant paediatrician expressed outrage last night after he was cleared to continue practising medicine despite misdiagnosing more than 600 children over a 10-year period.
A panel of the General Medical Council cleared Dr Andrew Holton in a private fitness-to-practise hearing which decided that he should be placed under restrictions, but could still continue to work as long as he met certain conditions.
However, parents of children misdiagnosed by him said that he should never be allowed to practise again. Their children became "zombie-like" after they were misdiagnosed and prescribed the wrong drugs.
The chairman of the Leicester Epilepsy Parents' Group, Adrian Stevenson, said: "It's too little and too late. It's a scandal. This means that others will be at risk in the future. The crucial issue here is what was his motive? He was told repeatedly by fellow professionals that he was treating people inappropriately. He should never practise medicine again."
They also criticised the official inquiries into Dr Holton, 53, who has been investigated by University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust, the British Paediatric Neurology Association and the regional office of the NHS, as well as the GMC. Parents have previously handed the GMC around 80 letters of complaint about Dr Holton.
Mr Stevenson, said the investigations failed to examine the full extent of Dr Holton's mistreatment of patients. "The GMC have avoided the true picture of the magnitude of the facts by only studying 12 cases," he said. "The NHS Trust knew years before, in our view, about Dr Holton, but waited to act. They seemed to see their role as protecting the trust and Dr Holton rather than caring for the children.
"This has been devastating not just for the children who were treated, but also their parents and siblings."
Dr Holton was suspended from his post at Leicester Royal infirmary after an investigation found he had given the wrong diagnoses to 618 children between 1990 and 2001, before being allowed to resume his career in a different part of the country.
In a statement at the tribunal, the GMC panel said: "Having found that the standard of your professional performance has been seriously deficient, the panel considered whether it is sufficient to direct that your registration should be subject to conditions.
"It decided that conditions are sufficient and necessary for the protection of the public and are proportionate."
Dr Holton will now have to confine his practice to working as a specialist registrar in the approved higher medical training programme in neurophysiology in the West Midlands Deanery, which appointed him in 2003. He must also face an annual performance review, ongoing assessments and agree to the appointment of a mentor for the next three years.
