MPs demand UK-wide Eljamel inquiry after we reveal links to Walton

The rogue brain surgeon accused of harming hundreds of patients operated for four years at the world-renowned Walton neurosurgical centre in Liverpool, we can reveal.

Now MPs are calling for a UK-wide inquiry covering every hospital where Sam Eljamel worked.

Liverpool Labour MP Dan Carden and Fife MP Richard Baker want the Scottish Government to bring in UK-wide bodies to the inquiry it announced last year.

Carden said: “The Scottish Government’s inquiry is welcome. But I’m calling on it to expand this to all areas where Eljamel operated, so that we can properly identify the failings, learn real lessons, but most importantly – deliver accountability and justice for every victim.”

More than two dozen of Libya-born Eljamel’s patients came from Baker’s constituency, and he is calling for the Health and Safety Executive to be included in the inquiry.

He said: “UK regulators such as the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) don’t normally get involved in Scottish inquiries, but that’s by convention only. An exception should be made in this case, given HSE has an essential role to play in scrutinising evidence and making recommendations.”

Campaigners criticised officials at the Walton Centre NHS Foundation Trust who have refused to even confirm that Eljamel worked there, citing “data protection” laws ahead of a duty of candour to patients.

It refused to answer our questions on how many patients, if any, were harmed by Eljamel, and whether they had carried out an audit of patient records.

Eljamel’s own CV confirms he was at the Walton from September 1987 until August 1991, during which time he published a large number of medical research papers.

Pat Kelly, who suffered life-changing injuries at the hands of Eljamel, said: “It is inconceivable that Eljamel could have harmed more than 200 patients while he was at Ninewells in Dundee but somehow managed not to damage a single patient when he was at the Walton.

“For years, Eljamel’s Scottish victims here were lied to. We were told we were ‘unique’ and we were the ‘only ones’ this had happened to. We only discovered there were hundreds of us when the media picked up our stories. MP’s must now ask if the Walton has done the same thing to patients there, and that is why their health officials are being so evasive today.”

Kelly and other campaigners joined MPs calling for the Walton to carry out an audit to check on the health of every patient seen by Eljamel.

He said: “There are very few of us who us who did not require further surgeries and treatment as a result of the damage done by Eljamel at Ninewells. The Walton have a duty of candour as well as a duty of care to their patients. Their silence is unconscionable.”

Eljamel also worked at two hospitals in Dublin before joining NHS Tayside’s neurosurgery department at Ninewells Hospital, Dundee in 1995, rising to lead the department. As patients came forward with claims of botched surgeries, horror stories began to emerge questioning Eljamel’s skill.

Despite a 2013 review which found patients had been harmed, NHS Tayside failed to suspend him and instead allowed him to continue operating on patients “under supervision” until the following year.

In 2014, Eljamel resigned and moved to Libya where he continues to operate.

After years of criticism, the Scottish Government agreed to a judge-led inquiry into the scandal. Victims are still likely to wait a further two years or more to know whether any charges will be brought by police, who are also investigating NHS Tayside over the case.

Kelly, 65, said: “This is one of the biggest health scandals Scotland has ever seen. But the news Eljamel operated for four years at a Liverpool hospital opens it up to being a national scandal, and that is the reason why the Scottish inquiry must now reconsider its terms of reference to include national regulatory bodies as a matter of urgency.

“We need to see the UK regulator being brought in to examine what went on before Eljamel arrived at Ninewells, including what happened in Liverpool and what was known about him there.”

Kelly was operated on at NHS Ninewells in 2007 when Eljamel was supposed to carry out surgery on a thoracic disc problem

The former radio presenter said: “It was seven years later in 2014, when I had to undergo an MRI scan, that the terrible truth emerged. Major surgery had been performed cutting my body extensively, my ribs were cracked open and I was hours on the operating table, but Eljamel did not perform the surgery he was supposed to do.

“I was sewn back up and lied to for years by health officials. I’m now so disabled, I couldn’t even pick a handkerchief off the floor. I’m in constant pain and my poor wife has to look after me like she would look after a toddler.”

© Mhairi Edwards

Fellow campaigner Jules Rose, 57, from Kinross, who had a tear duct removed by Eljamel instead of a brain tumour, said: “All the relevant UK-wide regulatory bodies must now be involved in the Weir Inquiry or it will end up as nothing more than the contaminated blood inquiry carried out by Lord Penrose which was labelled a whitewash.

“We need to see a proper nationwide investigation by the appropriate regulator which will examine what Eljamel did at every single hospital he worked at in the UK, and that must include an audit to check exactly how many patients were exposed to harm.”