PATIENT safety chiefs are to investigate claims that 28 operations on children were botched by unskilled surgeons.

Last week the Sunday Express revealed how a whistle-blowing surgeon was suspended after raising concerns about the safety of youngsters undergoing surgery at an NHS hospital.

The whistleblower, paediatric surgeon Shiban Ahmed, claimed some children were suffering poor surgery while others were being denied urgent operations, resulting in one baby dying.

The Care Quality Commission – set up to protect patient safety in hospitals – was alerted by the surgeon who told of his concerns about paediatric surgery at the University Hospital of North Staffordshire in Stoke-on-Trent.

The hospital referred the matter to the West Midlands Strategic Health Authority which then made inquiries with senior hospital managers who claimed there were no problems. No investigation took place.

But now, following our report, the Care Quality Commission has said it will investigate the allegations in the Sunday Express’s dossier.

The dossier included the case of a 10-year old boy who needed his appendix removed.  He was operated on by a surgeon who took two feet of the child’s intestine by mistake.

It also highlighted the case of an 11-year-old girl left in agony for nine months while she waited for a surgeon to carry out a stomach repair.
The Sunday Express asked the hospital to provide evidence that all its general surgeons were competent and qualified to operate on children and met the official guidelines.

But it declined and asked us to use the Freedom of Information Act to submit our request. Responses to these requests can take up to a month and can be refused.

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