A DEVASTATED father has warned patients at a hospital that a trainee surgeon working there was responsible for the death of his son.

Myles Phillips was visiting Newcastle to campaign for the sacking of Amit Misra who was convicted nine months ago of the manslaughter of his son.

Mr Misra was given an 18-month suspended sentence at Winchester Crown Court after the trial judge was told the junior doctor's career was in ruins.

But health bosses in Newcastle have confirmed that he is practising as a trainee orthopaedic surgeon at the Freeman Hospital.

Mr Phillips, 57, from near Canterbury, Kent, said: "I want to let the people of Newcastle know that their relatives, old people or children, could be treated by this man."

Mr Misra and another doctor, Rajeev Srivastava, were convicted of manslaughter due to gross negligence following the death of father-of-one Sean Phillips, from Southampton, in June 2000.

They were both junior doctors at Southampton General Hospital in June 2000, when Mr Phillips was admitted for a routine knee operation. But he suffered toxic shock syndrome which they both failed to diagnose.

Nursing staff on the ward were so concerned about Mr Phillips they asked Mr Misra to take a blood sample but he refused.

Myles Phillips said yesterday: "They didn't go to prison because both their barristers appealed to the judge that their careers were basically over now because of it."

A spokesman for Newcastle Hospitals NHS Trust said: "Mr Misra is a junior orthopaedic surgeon, deployed under supervision as part of his education and training across the hospitals in the North-East. We have been given an assurance that no patient is at risk."