The decision to strike off Professor Sir Roy Meadow for giving misleading evidence at Sally Clark's murder trial sent shockwaves through the medical profession and the legal system.

Among doctors it was seen as almost inconceivable that Prof Meadow should be punished in this way. He was among the most distinguished paediatricians of his day, the author of pioneering research into Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy, credited with saving the lives of many children.

What Professor Meadow had done was to quote a statistic that was wrong, that the chances of two cot deaths in one family were one in 73 million. In fact they were one in 200. But although the Professor had made a serious error, which probably influenced the outcome of Mrs Clark's trial, there was no suggestion that he had done so deliberately. He had simply made a mistake.

A disciplinary panel of the General Medical Council, the body which registers all doctors, had however regarded this mistake so seriously that they had taken away his right to practice medicine.

The repercussions were immediate - the supply of child health experts willing to co-operate with the police on child protection work, or to give evidence in family courts and especially in the criminal courts, started to dry up.

"The paediatricians I spoke to were all horrified at the result," said Dr Harvey Marcovitch, a spokesman for the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health.

"They accepted that the statistic he had given in court was wrong, that he had made an error. But paediatricians started to ask whether if they too made an error, even in good faith, did that leave them open to punishment by the GMC? If it did, they concluded, they would rather not appear in court, actually."

A survey by the Royal College showed that job vacancies for paediatricians in the community, where there was a large amount of child protection work, were five times as likely to be unfilled as similar jobs in hospitals, said Dr Marcovitch. About 140 community paediatric posts were empty. In addition, one third of hospitals could not find doctors willing to take on the responsibility of overseeing child protection work.

The Royal College began to receive begging phone calls for solicitors asking for a paediatrician - any paediatrician - who would be willing to give evidence in a child protection case, whether for the prosecution or the defence. The college did not have such a register, and had to say that it could not help.

Christina Blacklaws, the chairman of the Law Society's family law committee, said that the effect was serious. "It is becoming increasingly difficult to find medical experts willing to report in court cases, particularly if you have alleged non-accidental injuries to children," she said.

The difficulty in finding expert witnesses inevitably damaged justice by increasing the delays in bringing family cases to court. In one case she was currently working on, she had been forced to go to child health experts as far afield as Cardiff, Sheffield and Birmingham, said Ms Blacklaws. Trying to get them all in the same room to discuss areas of agreement and disagreement was causing further delays.

"Delays occur to an unacceptable degree in every single childcare case we have in Greater London," she said.

But the greatest damage done by the Meadow case was to deter young doctors from deciding to do court work, said Ms Blacklaws. "Those young registrars who were thinking they might want to go down the road of court reporting have been very understandably put off by the Roy Meadow case."

The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health today put out a statement, saying: "We hope that today's decision will give confidence back to paediatricians, whose responsibility and role is so important in the protection of children and who can contribute so much in the position of expert witnesses."

The Royal College has taken its own action to halt the decline, setting up training courses for young registrars who might enter court work, and putting together guidance for consultants.

This week the Attorney General's office also entered the fray, issuing its own booklet of guidance to expert witnesses, drawn up with the help of the Association of Chief Police Officers and the Crown Prosecution Service.

"I believe these clear and thorough guidelines will assist in bringing about greater confidence in the criminal justice system in handling such difficult cases where expert witnesses are called on," said Lord Goldsmith, the Attorney General.

Dr Marcovitch said that he had taken heart from Mr Justice Collins's judgment today in the Meadow case, that the GMC's decision to strike him off "approaches the irrational". He said he hoped that paediatricians would read it and take heart.

But Ms Blacklaws said she feared it may be too late for that. "I doubt whether reinstating Professor Meadow will have any significant effect in redressing what is already a very worrying situation. I think what has happened in his case has been enough to make people question it. The damage has already been done."

Explore UK News

• Crime News

• Education News

• Health News

• Science News

• Scotland News

Times Recommends

• DIY video helps the WI get to grips with sex
• Artists urge nation to save Titians
• Go home, Iraqi leader tells Britain