No sanction for doctor guilty of misconduct in Martha's rule case

A senior doctor who was found guilty of "misconduct which impairs his fitness to practise" in his treatment of 13-year-old Martha Mills will face no sanction owing to "exceptional circumstances".

- Haroon Siddique

The disciplinary tribunal said yesterday that it would take no further action with respect to Prof Richard Thompson because it was a "single lapse of judgment in an otherwise exemplary career". It said there were no outstanding public protection issues and it was not its role to punish him.

Thompson was the on-duty consultant at King's College hospital (KCH), in south London, on 29 August 2021, two days before Martha's death from sepsis, which led last year to the introduction of Martha's rule, giving the right to a second medical opinion in English hospitals.

The tribunal found that Thompson, who left the hospital at 3pm, had failed to escalate Martha's treatment to an intensive care unit or to conduct an in-person review and assessment, including of a rash. The duty registrar had called Thompson at home when Martha developed the rash.

In 2022, a coroner ruled she would probably have survived if doctors had identified the warning signs of her rapidly deteriorating condition and transferred her to intensive care earlier, which her parents had asked doctors to do.