Doctors demand probe into claims of a Baby P cover-up

Senior doctors from Great Ormond Street today demanded a government inquiry into an alleged "cover-up" by the leading children's hospital over the Baby P tragedy.

The unidentified paediatricians want independent investigators brought in after claims the hospital failed to pass on information to a review of events surrounding the death in August 2007 of 17-month-old Peter Connelly.

They have written to the medical journal, The Lancet, calling for "strong ministerial intervention" to establish the facts. It comes after Home Office minister Lynne Featherstone called for the hospital's chief executive, Dr Jane Collins, to step down.

Great Ormond Street commissioned two top paediatricians to investigate the case, but passed an edited version of their report to a serious case review instead of the original.

The hospital is accused of failing to share key findings of a critical report into St Ann's Clinic in Haringey, for which it was responsible, where Peter was assessed two days before he was found dead with more than 50 injuries. His mother, her lover and their lodger were jailed in 2009 over his death.

The hospital is alleged to have withheld its senior doctor's view that St Ann's was "clinically risky", and that the doctor who saw Peter there, Dr Sabah Al-Zayyat, had "little experience and training in child protection".

The hospital has rejected the claims, saying it had "no reason to believe that any of its staff, with or without the approval of management, sought to mislead" the review or "otherwise hide deficiencies in the service".