Row as GP loses job

A doctor claims he has been hounded out of his job at the hospital where Dr Bridget O'Connell was suspended for 11 years. Dr Max Segal alleges he was forced out after voicing concern about standards of patient care at King George Hospital in Ilford, Essex.

Dr O'Connell, a paediatrician, was suspended after expressing similar worries. Last month the North Thames Regional Health Authority awarded Dr O'Connell a six-figure compensation settlement.

Now Dr Segal, a 42-year-old GP, who worked part-time in the gynaecology out-patient department, says he was reduced to running ultra-sound clinics normally run by the

midwives.

Local MP Vivian Bendall is investigating claims of harrassment by the hospital. However, a spokesman said Dr Segal had taken redunancy by mutual agreement because better training for midwives had allowed them to take over his work.