Dr Kim Holt claims that she was forced out of her job

A MUSWELL Hill doctor who raised concerns about Haringey’s paediatric services before Baby P died, is suing the NHS for compensation after claiming that she was forced out of her job.

Dr Kim Holt, a consultant paediatrician, is understood to be suing her former employer, Great Ormond Street (Gosh), for �100,000 in a personal injury claim.

She warned managers that there were severe problems at the Child Development Centre in St Ann’s Hospital in Tottenham more than a year before Baby Peter was seen there.

The 17-month-old boy was examined two days before he died by a temporary locum consultant paediatrician, but she failed to spot that he had a suspected broken back and sent him home with his mother.

Baby Peter died in August 2007 at the hands of his mother, her boyfriend and her boyfriend’s brother in horrific circumstances.

Dr Holt, 51, claims that if NHS managers had listened to her concerns, Baby Peter could have been saved.

She filed a formal complaint about a shortage of medical staff and the “chaotic” appointments system at the Child Development Centre in St Ann’s Hospital – which was run by Haringey Primary Care Trust and managed by doctors from Gosh -in Tottenham in spring 2006.

But she alleges that instead of listening to her concerns, the number of consultant posts was cut and her workload increased.

She was signed off from work in February 2007 after suffering from depression, anxiety and sleep problems.

She has been on “authorised leave” ever since and has not been allowed to return to her original post. However, she is still working for the trust and continues to receive her consultant’s salary of between �75,000 and �100,000.

A spokesman for Great Ormond Street Hospital said: “Dr Holt is working clinically in the Trust, but not currently in her original role. We are seeking through mediation to enable her to return to that role.

“The trust has received a solicitor’s letter and will respond in due course. It is not able to discuss possible future litigation.”