A SURGEON said yesterday that high child mortality rates in one of Britain's most deprived areas were due, in part, to below-par medical standards.

Dr Feyi Awotona said her efforts in trying to improve the clinical standards at South Tyneside Hospital led to her being targeted by fellow doctors and subjected to racist and sexist abuse.

She told an industrial tribunal in Newcastle that when she raised concerns about her treatment, she was investigated and sacked, supposedly for "personal and professional misconduct".

Yesterday, Dr Awotona, 45, a mother-of-three, who was in charge of the labour ward at South Tyneside General Hospital, claimed she was unlawfully sacked and the victim of racial and sexual discrimination.

A highly qualified surgeon, she became a consultant in obstetrics and gynaecology at South Tyneside Hospital, South Shields, in February 1995.

Dr Awotona told the tribunal that economic disadvantage was often put forward as the reason for high child mortality rates, but that another factor was that "practice within obstetrics and gynaecology was not of the highest standard".

She said she began to suffer racist and sexist comments from senior doctors when she put herself forward for the post of clinical director.

But she said the most offensive comment was made by Peter Robson, the medical director of her employer, the South Tyneside Healthcare Trust.

"He told me that because I was a woman and black, there was a limit to what I could do at South Tyneside," she said.

When Dr Awotona was dismissed, figures showed she had cancelled 56 operations in three years, more than any of the other four consultants at the hospital.

She was accused of leaving a labour ward without a consultant, putting her studies ahead of patient care and being obstructive and confrontational.

The hearing continues.