In a ruling last year, three judges at the Court of Appeal said the rights of the parents to “tell their story” outweighed the privacy rights of the clinicians and staff that remained “long after” the court orders were made.

But Gavin Millar KC, for Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, said the Court of Appeal’s decision “contains a number of clear and obvious missteps”.

In written submissions for Monday’s hearing, the barrister said the judge who originally upheld the court orders “had well in mind the fact that the identities of the clinicians would be publicised in conjunction with allegations being made against them by the parents, connected to the emotive issues in the end-of-life proceedings”.

However, in written submissions for the parents, barrister Bruno Quintavalle said: “Confidentiality is owed by the clinician to the patient not by the patient to the clinician.

“A patient may lawfully make public comment, either positive or negative, about the treatment he has received from a named clinician.

“Clinicians, like other professionals, are well aware of this and so cannot have any expectation that their professional relationship will be kept permanently private.”