A PAEDIATRICIAN at the centre of the lengthy hyponatraemia inquiry should face a fitness to practise hearing because it is in the "public interest", a lawyer has argued.
Dr Heather Steen has asked to be removed from the medical register.
If her application is successful she will not have to face a fitness to practise hearing.
The Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) panel, which is due to hear evidence until the end of next month, heard the medic is seeking voluntary erasure from the General Medical Council (GMC) register due to medical reasons.
Dr Steen has appeared before the panel since Monday.
Much of the high-profile case has been heard in private.
However, during a public session yesterday, lawyer Tom Forster, who is representing the GMC, said it is in the public interest for the tribunal to go ahead.
Dr Steen is accused of several failings following the death of Claire Roberts at the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children in October 1996.
The tribunal has been asked to consider allegations, including that Dr Steen "knowingly and dishonestly carried out several actions to conceal the true circumstances" of Claire's death.
Mr Forster said yesterday Dr Steen faces "a very serious allegation of dishonesty".
"The public interest can only be served if this tribunal... determines those allegations," he said.
He said the proceedings are "considering the fitness to practice of a doctor and the wider public interest of maintaining public confidence in the medical profession".
"It's not just about this individual doctor," he said.
"The public interest is much wider than that."
Nine-year-old Claire Roberts was one of five children whose deaths were investigated in Northern Ireland's longest-running public inquiry.
Four of the deaths were found to be "avoidable".
Claire's case was the only one in which inquiry chair Sir John O'Hara QC found an attempted "cover up" by some consultants.
In December 2012, Dr Steen told the public inquiry she denied claims of a cover-up into Claire's death.
