"A series of missed opportunities" have been revealed by an investigation into hundreds of children's surgeries carried out by a specialist working at a world-renowned NHS hospital.
Kuldeep Stohr was suspended by Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge earlier this year, amid concerns over surgeries that were "below the expected standard".
A "pivotal missed opportunity" came when the hospital trust failed to act upon recommendations made by an external reviewer into her work in 2016, the report said.
If appropriate actions had been taken, they "would have likely reduced harm to paediatric orthopaedic patients", the independent investigators concluded.
Radd Seiger, a retired lawyer who represents 25 of the affected families said: "This was not a rogue surgeon — this was a rogue system."
The investigation was commissioned by CUH and carried out by Verita, which describes itself as an "objective investigations company providing expert advice to regulated organisations in the UK".
Ms Stohr was suspended by the hospital and has not been at work since March 2024, initially for personal reasons.
In her absence, her patients were seen by other doctors who discovered, a letter to the parents from the hospital said, a "higher than expected level of complications".
That led to an initial review, which found operations involving nine children fell "below expected standards".
One of those was Darcey, whose parents previously told the BBC they feared problems with her hip operation, which left her leg rotated inwards "to almost 90 degrees" and in need of further surgery, were "brushed under the rug".
It emerged that concerns about Ms Stohr dated back as early as 2015 and wider reviews were started into about 800 patient procedures.
The latest report concluded there was "a series of missed opportunities, both major and minor, in how CUH and its leadership addressed concerns" about Ms Stohr's medical practice and "appropriate actions could have been taken".
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Source: BBC News, 29 October 2025
