Epilepsy doctor to be replaced

Dr Holton worked at Leicester Royal Infirmary

A new consultant paediatrician is to be recruited to replace the doctor suspended amid allegations that he may have wrongly diagnosed children as suffering from epilepsy.

The move follows the announcement last week that it will take months until the case against Dr Andrew Holton, 48, is resolved.

His suspension from his post at Leicester Royal Infirmary in June left only one consultant paediatrician to cope with a workload previously shared by two people.

Some families claim their children have been treated by nurses instead of a consultant, as they had expected.

The Leicester Hospitals Trust has now decided to advertise for another consultant because of the length of time it will take before the allegations made against Dr Holton are fully dealt with.

Parents of children diagnosed as epileptic by Dr Holton have welcomed the appointment but say the recruitment may be difficult.

A case-by-case review is under way into 8,500 patients treated by him but there have been complaints from parents that this is going too slowly.