A GP facing a disciplinary hearing which could lead to him being struck off is suffering from a phobia making it impossible for him to instruct the lawyers defending him.

Dr David Jarman, a former partner at Wallingford Medical Centre, Reading Road, Wallingford, is facing allegations of serious professional misconduct in front of the General Medical Council's professional conduct committee.

But Harley Street psychiatrist Dr Adrianne Revely said that he had a fear of the GMC and was unfit to attend the hearing.

Dr Revely rejected findings from a separate psychiatric report prepared for the GMC, which stated that while Dr Jarman might be unable to attend now, he could benefit if given a course of anti-depressants.

Dr Jarman is accused of giving "inadequate and inappropriate" treatment to a five-year-old boy who died in hospital 11 days later in 1993. The hearing was told Wilfred Toth's mother called the doctor requesting an urgent home visit as her son was having a fit.

The child suffered from glycogen storage disease, preventing his body from having enough sugars, and Mrs Toth asked Dr Jarman to bring injectable glucose with him.

But when he arrived he refused to administer it.

The boy was subsequently referred to the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, where he later died.

Dr Jarman, who is suffering from generalised anxiety disorder, is appealing for voluntary erasure from the medical register, so he does not have to go through the conduct hearing.

But Wilfred's father, Arpad Toth, is demanding that all the details of the case should be heard, and the committee must decide whether Dr Jarman can be removed from the register before any evidence is heard.

Mary O'Rourke, for Dr Jarman, said her client no longer called himself Dr, using the title Mr instead.

She said: "He has a complete loss of confidence and is unable to exercise his clinical judgement."

She said he was too ill to instruct his legal team or attend the hearing, even though he had the "right to be present and participate effectively".

It would be a "fundamental breach of his human rights" if the hearing were allowed to continue. The case continues.