NHS Hospital Scandals – Truth, Whitewash or Scapegoating?

Whistleblowing doctors sacked after a spate of unnecessary patient deaths, lawyers circling, a major police investigation, and a county coroner who served time at Holloway Prison for perverting the course of justice. The Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton is the setting for the latest NHS scandal. The hospital has taken the baton of notoriety previously held by Stafford and Gosport, although like the mental hospital inquiries in the 1970s, the problems are endemic in our healthcare system.

Police officers have been at the Royal Sussex for over a year, and the hospital continues to draw adverse publicity. Last week national newspapers reported that a surgeon had opened the chest of a patient with a penknife that he normally used for cutting his packed lunch. The person had been prepared for surgery and was brought to the operating theatre hurriedly after a heart attack. A life was saved, and perhaps that’s all that we should care about. But theatre staff were not convinced that the surgeon, who was known for off-piste practices, could not find a scalpel.

Trouble at the hospital was first reported in June 2023, when two surgeons (Mansoor Foroughi and Krishna Singh) were dismissed after raising concerns about medical negligence. They claimed that the hospital management had failed to investigate dozens of untoward deaths in the general surgery and neurosurgery departments.

Sussex Police launched Operation Bramber to investigate possible criminal neglect and manslaughter. The scope was extended to 105 cases, at least forty of them fatal, in the period 2015 to 2021. Patients’ representatives urged suspension of all doctors involved, but NHS trust management asserted its confidence in its surgical teams.

Clearly there was something seriously wrong. In August 2023 a report by the Royal College of Surgeons described a ‘culture of fear’, with a high volume of complaints by patients and their families. Operations were often cancelled after a person had been prepared and fasted. Clinicians were under enormous pressure, and the report noted a reluctance to respond to their concerns. A Care Quality Commission report at the same time attributed the problems to poor leadership.

The management, described by neurosurgeon Mr Foroughi  as akin to the Mafia, had tried to suppress any dissent. No doubt they were concerned for their salaries and pensions, while diverting resources from patient care to equality and diversity officers (and, this being Brighton, climate changers). The NHS trust’s maternity services also came under scrutiny, following nine deaths of babies allegedly caused by failings in care, from 2021 to 2023.  Meanwhile visitors’ parking fees at the Royal Sussex were increased from £2.50 per hour to £4.70 – a callous tax on compassion.

An illustrative case, pursued by solicitors Slater & Gordon, was that of Ken Valder. Having had an oesophageal tumour suspected in October 2021, he was due to have an ultrasound but this was delayed until January 2022 due to equipment failures, staff holidays and administrative errors. Doctors could not agree on treatment, and by the time that Valder had surgery in May 2022 the cancer had metastasised. He died in November 2022 from a malignancy that modern medicine could have stopped in its tracks.

An important role in the Royal Sussex inquiry is that of the coroner. Back in 2010 the website of Anonymous Prosecutor criticised the appointment of Penelope Schofield as Her Majesty’s Senior Coroner for West Sussex, Brighton & Hove. In 1997 Schofield was jailed for lying under oath to protect her boyfriend, a detective. Yet she was appointed to a position of trust.

Schofield, whose father was a district judge, showed contrition, and as we all make mistakes we should be willing to forgive. But would you or I be allowed to draw a line under a past offence? The offence, according to Anonymous Prosecutor, was no careless misdemeanour but a strike at the heart of justice: –

‘Imagine that a loved one meets a sudden and unusual end, requiring investigation by a coroner. The circumstances suggest that the police caused the death in custody by mistreating the deceased. Would you want her as the coroner?’

Will the investigation lead to truth, whitewash or scapegoating? The UK Covid-19 Inquiry, announced by Boris Johnson in May 20212 to begin a year later, is chaired by Judge Baroness Hallett. The inquiry has been criticised by sceptics as an exercise in narrative reinforcement, avoiding any consideration of the veracity of the virus, suspected motives relating to global control and the ‘Great Reset’, and harm caused by the experimental vaccines.

Whatever one thinks of the Lucy Letby case, for Lady Thirlwall to detach her inquiry at the Countess of Chester Hospital from any analysis of the deaths and injuries attributed to the convicted nurse, suggests that truth is something to manage rather than illuminate. Were the doctors at that hospital blameless? Lady Thirlwall admonished the growing number of medical experts and commentators who doubt the verdict, accusing them of upsetting the families of harmed babies. The authorities conveniently use sensitivity (by proxy) to stop people from asking tough questions.

I am aware of another recent tragic death at the Royal Sussex. My knowledge is limited to an account by the bereaved – thus I cannot accuse anyone of wrongdoing. A young adult, who the family believe could have been successfully treated for her disease, was seemingly given drugs that were not primarily for her survival but for preservation of her organs. In the emerging culture of majority public support for euthanasia, we should not assume that death is an ending. For young people, such as victims of road traffic accidents, the change from opt-in to opt-out of donor status could be a crucial factor in clinical decision-making.

We all depend on hospitals, doctors and nurses sooner or later. Individually, they may be conscientious, but the system is not. One is reminded of the medieval warning: –

‘Abandon hope, all ye who enter here’

Niall McCrae is the author of ‘Green in Tooth and Claw: the Misanthropic Mission of Climate Alarm’ (2024).

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