Surgeon at NHS hospital promoted despite allegedly assaulting staff
Managers at a hospital where police are investigating dozens of deaths promoted a consultant surgeon months after they allegedly assaulted junior doctors during surgery, the Guardian can reveal.
Two female registrars at the University Hospitals Sussex NHS trust in Brighton sent written statements to the trust’s chief medical officer in March 2022 detailing how they were allegedly assaulted by the surgeon in separate incidents as they helped to operate on patients, leaked documents reveal.
The incidents were not reported to the police and are not part of a separate Sussex police investigation into allegations of medical negligence and cover-up at the trust’s surgery and neurosurgery departments, involving at least 40 deaths and more than 60 incidents of patient harm.
The consultant surgeon was alleged to have slapped one of the registrars across her face with the back of a hand. The other registrar claimed she was slapped on the hand and had surgical instruments snatched from her by the same person.
The trust said its investigation found the surgeon’s actions were inappropriate but did not constitute assault and were taken in the interest of patient safety. The surgeon apologised to the registrars.
The investigation concluded that, in the first incident, the registrar’s visor was blocking the consultant’s field of vision during surgery, causing them to instinctively push the visor away. In the second incident, it concluded that an instrument was taken from the registrar’s hand during a procedure for patient safety purposes.
After these events, other registrars threatened to refuse to go into theatre with the consultant and pointed to other alleged examples of their bullying, sources claim. They had expected the consultant to be disciplined, given time off work and supported in changing their behaviour, the sources added. Instead, within a year of the complaints, the consultant was given a leadership role in the surgery department, despite the trust’s stated policy of zero tolerance for violence and aggression.
Source: The Guardian, 22 April 2024