A DOCTOR has denied giving a false account on the medical records of a 12-year-old boy while police investigating his death waited in her surgery to collect them, a tribunal has heard.

Ryan Morse died at his home in Brynithel, in December 2012 from undiagnosed Addison's disease, a rare condition, after a phone conversation between his concerned mother and family GP Dr Joanne Rudling, of Abertillery, the day before.

Carol Morse has told a disciplinary hearing in Manchester that she told Dr Rudling her son's genitals were black and the medic refused to visit him at home.

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Dr Rudling says that did not match with her recollection of the call to the Abernant surgery on the late afternoon of Friday December 7.

Dr Rudling accepts she did not make a contemporaneous note of the conversation and made a retrospective entry in Ryan's records on the following Monday which was not flagged up as backdated, but says she was not acting dishonestly.

The Medical Practitioners Tribunal heard the surgery's head receptionist told Dr Rudling on the morning of December 10 that no record of the three-minute call had been made.

On Thursday, Peter Horgan, for the General Medical Council, asked the doctor: "At that point you were worried about your position, weren't you?"

She replied: "No, I was more concerned we had missed something."

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Dr Joanne Rudling Picture: Wales News Service

Mr Horgan said: "Were you worried that you may be criticised about the way in which you handled that telephone conversation on the Friday night?"

Dr Rudling said: "Not that I can recall."

Mr Horgan went on: "The criticism is this was a case in which a child had died and the police were waiting to collect those records. You say you wanted to give them a complete picture, why didn't you?"

She said: "I thought I was. I don't think necessarily I was thinking rationally at the time but I was not intending to mislead anyone."

Dr Rudling added she thought that an audit trail would eventually pin down when the entry was actually made.

The tribunal heard that Dr Rudling went on to tell a health board investigation in January 2013 that she did not make a contemporaneous entry because her computer had been disconnected.

She also gave the same explanation to police in November 2013 when police interviewed her on suspicion of committing gross negligence manslaughter.

However, it later emerged that she had recorded an entry on her computer on December 7 - after the conversation with Ryan's mother - in relation to a subsequent phone call from an oncologist about another patient.

Dr Rudling told the tribunal she had completely forgotten about the oncologist phone call when making her statements to the health board and the police.

Asked about the December 7 conversation, she said Mrs Morse had said her son would be embarrassed about an examination from her and that she "seemed happy" to wait to see a male GP on Monday.

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Ryan Morse. Picture: Wales News Service

She said: "I asked if he was in any pain, how was he from a temperature point of view. None of the answers were in the affirmative, so I felt he was getting a bit better."

The colour black was never mentioned and no request for a home visit was made, she maintained.

In the months before his death Ryan had become ill and was looked at by various GPs at the Abertillery surgery, the hearing has been told.

Dr Rudling and Dr Lindsey Thomas, who also practised at the surgery, were charged with manslaughter by gross negligence.

During their trial, the prosecution accepted the doctors could not have been expected to diagnose Addison's - which affects around 10 in every 100,000 people.

A High Court judge ruled there was no case to answer and Dr Rudling was also acquitted of perverting the course of justice.

An inquest in September 2017 concluded that Ryan's death was "due to natural causes where the opportunity to administer lifesaving treatment was missed" as the youngster was not referred to hospital.

Dr Rudling denies a number of allegations before the tribunal, including that on December 7 she failed to obtain an adequate history of Ryan's wellbeing and change in genitalia colour; advise that an urgent assessment was required and to undertake or offer a home visit.

The hearing continues.

Joanne Rudling and Ryan Morse. Picture: Wales News Service