AN "incompetent" GP struck off after two of her patients died, lost her appeal at the Privy Council in London yesterday.

Dr Usha Singh, 49, representing herself, told the Law Lords there had been a confusion over names in relation to one patient.

Having read her main submissions, the Law Lords declined to hear from the General Medical Council (GMC) and dismissed the appeal, giving reasons later.

Dr Singh, of Pelham Court, Kingston Park Estate, Newcastle, was struck off the medical register in June last year by the GMC's professional conduct committee sitting in Manchester.

The first victim, a 45-year-old man known as Mr A, died from cancer of the colon three weeks after Dr Singh ignored his family's pleadings for a proper diagnosis. The second, an 84-year-old woman, Mrs B, died days after a bungled bedside consultation.

During investigations Dr Singh, who worked as a locum in Newcastle and Cramlington, Northumberland, tried to evade co-operating with the authorities.

The professional conduct committee had told her: "We consider your conduct fundamentally incompatible with being a doctor."

Yesterday, in a brief hearing she tried to overturn a finding of serious professional misconduct and being struck off, but that was rejected.