Police question doctors over neurosurgery malpractice claims at scandal-hit hospital
Police have been urged to reveal how many cases of potential surgical malpractice they are investigating at a scandal-hit Brighton hospital.
Lawyers for victims of allegedly incompetent surgeons at Royal Sussex County Hospital have said the reported number of just over 105 cases is likely to be the “tip of the iceberg”.
In June 2023 Sussex Police launched Operation Bamber, an investigation into allegations of cover-up and medical negligence, including reportedly dozens of cases where patients died.
The investigation concerns incidents in the neurosurgery and general surgery departments of the hospital between 2015 and 2021, including 23-year-old Lewis Chilcott, who died after an alleged error during a tracheotomy procedure led to a fatal arterial bleed.
The Telegraph can reveal that police have begun the process of interviewing witnesses among the staff, and have notified the surgeons under suspicion that they will form part of the investigation.
However, lawyers for the victims have said that many families of affected patients have yet to be notified that their cases are under review, leading to widespread distress and confusion.
One major London firm is even staging a walk-in event in Brighton next week so that people who think they might have been affected can seek advice.
Nisha Sharma, a lawyer at Slater Gordon, said: “I do suspect that there will be more cases involved in this investigation.
“My feeling based on experience of this sort of thing is that the cases that have come forward so far are the tip of the iceberg.”
She added: “The fact that families of the affected patients have yet to be notified by the University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust that their cases are part of Operation Bamber, has caused widespread concern, as has the fact the Trust has not suspended the surgeons alleged to be involved.”
Police called
It is understood that it was the number of adverse incidents in the two departments concerned that prompted police to take action, rather than a particular type of medical injury.
Awareness of the scale of the problems at the trust has been growing in and around Brighton, and local MP Caroline Lucas’s office has forwarded on numerous enquiries from concerned former patients.
The trust’s clinical competence was also questioned in the recent inquest of Abigail Fowler Miller, a baby who was delivered by emergency caesarean in the hospital foyer after her mother had been repeatedly assured by maternity staff over the phone that she did not need to come to the hospital.
By the time the mother, Katie Fowler, arrived at the hospital in a taxi she was in cardiac arrest.
She briefly met Abigail two days later, after being woken from an induced coma, but the baby died shortly after.
This week Sussex Police would not say how many cases it is investigating, but urged anyone with concerns to contact the force quoting Operation Bamber.
University Sussex NHS Foundation Trust says it is cooperating fully with the police inquiry but is unable to discuss publicly matters related to it.
