A GP has been charged with serious professional misconduct after a child he treated later died in hospital.

Dr David Jarman allegedly failed to treat five-year-old Wilfried Toth at his home and he died at the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford.

The General Medical Council last week agreed to pursue a complaint made by Wilfried's father, Arpad.

During a High Court judicial review last year it was claimed that the child suffered from glycogen storage disease and went into a hypoglycaemic seizure on October 9, 1993, at the family's home in The Lane, Gangsdown Hill, Nuffield, near Wallingford.

Dr Jarman, of Wallingford Medical Practice, was called to the house to examine Wilfried.

Mr Toth claimed the GP failed to treat the child's condition with glucose and instead gave him sedative drugs. He took his son to the casualty department at the JR, in Headington, where Wilfried died a week later.

The GMC, which regulates the practice of doctors, has now agreed to hear the case through its Professional Conduct Committee.

Mr Toth complained about Dr Jarman's fitness to practice in 1998, but a GMC screener decided not to refer the case to its preliminary proceedings committee, which determines whether a complaint has good grounds for investigation.

Mr Toth then launched the judicial review against the GMC and the High Court agreed that the organisation should look at the case again. During the court hearing, the judge was told that Dr Jarman, of Wallingford Road, Cholsey, suffered frequent ill health because of the complaint against him.

Mr Toth, 47, said: "I feel as though I have been pushing a reluctant donkey up a hill, but I am glad we have got to this point. I have had to go through all the courts, but now things are moving along in the right direction. I believe my case is very clear.

It's sad that it has taken more than seven years to get this far - this is the sort of thing nobody should have to go through."

Mr Toth, who has also taken legal action against lawyers instructed by Dr Jarman, added that he felt the "common man" often got a raw deal from the professional bodies in these cases.

The GMC said it would not comment on the case.

Dr Jarman was not available to comment.