Celebrity doctor Phil Hammond - presenter of the BBC series Trust Me I'm a Doctor - will be giving evidence to the Bristol heart babies inquiry on Monday.

Dr Hammond, who writes a column for the satirical magazine Private Eye under the pseudonym "MD", was the first to detail the allegations against surgeons at Bristol Royal Infirmary in the early 1990s.

He is a part-time GP in Keynsham and lecturer in Medical Communication at Bristol University.

The publicity given by Private Eye to the issue helped create the media storm surrounding the issue.

The inquiry, after a fortnight spent looking at why and how babies' organs were kept by the hospital without the knowledge of their parents, is now looking at the response from the authorities when concerns were first raised about the standard of heart surgery on infants and children.

NHS boss to be quizzed

Among those giving evidence during the week are Sir Alan Langlands, the chief executive of the NHS from 1994 onwards, Sir Kenneth Calman, and the government's Chief Medical Officer between 1991 and 1998.

Dr Peter Doyle, who was a senior medical officer at the Department of Health when serious concerns were raised by colleagues of the surgeons concerned, will also by questioned by solicitors for the inquiry and families of those babies who died.

The inquiry panel will look at allegations that the Department of Health did not act quickly enough when evidence of substandard surgery at Bristol Royal Infirmary was emerging.

Two doctors, surgeon Mr James Wisheart, and manager Dr John Roylance were struck off by the General Medical Council after it was found that operations on babies with congenital heart defects continued despite unacceptably poor results.

Another surgeon, Mr Janardan Dhasmana, was banned from carrying out heart operations on children or babies.