Health boss in hearing over death

A senior boss at Stafford Hospital will face a disciplinary hearing over allegations of a cover-up surrounding the death of a man who had suffered a ruptured spleen but was told he had bruised ribs.

Kate Levy, trust board secretary and head of legal services at the hospital, is to appear before a disciplinary panel by the end of June following an internal investigation into her conduct.

Chief executive Antony Sumara has pledged that the hospital will go ahead with the hearing whether Mrs Levy attends or not.

Mrs Levy was suspended after it emerged at the independent inquiry into the disaster at Stafford Hospital that she had written to a consultant asking him to remove critical paragraphs from a report on the death of John Moore-Robinson.

Mr Moore-Robinson, aged 20, died in April 2006 after a mountain bike accident on Cannock Chase. He was taken to A&E but doctors failed to give him a scan which would have revealed he had a ruptured spleen.

He was sent home with painkillers and told he had bruised ribs — but he died a few hours later.

Consultant Ivan Phair concluded the death was "avoidable" and "possibly negligent" but was asked to delete the comments by Kate Levy to avoid what she called bad publicity and further distress for the family.