RCS Eng response following media coverage of an invited review at NNUHFT

Following recent media coverage of an invited review, an RCS spokesperson commented:

“At the invitation of Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, we carried out an invited review into the clinical practice of a consultant general surgeon in July 2020. The Trust also asked us to carry out a review of its upper gastrointestinal (GI) and emergency surgical service. We carried out these reviews concurrently. 

“One of the reasons identified by the Trust for the individual review of the surgeon’s practice was three episodes of patient care. The review team were provided with background information from the Trust, including patient complaints and root cause analysis serious incident reports and the hospital’s response. The review team were also provided with a patient’s response to the Trust’s root cause analysis serious incident report. These documents were available to the review team, alongside the information gathered during the review from other documentation submitted and interviews with the individual surgeon and staff members. All of this information was considered by the review team when reaching their conclusions and recommendations in the final report about the wider overall practice of the surgeon. This report was issued in September 2020.

“We welcome the Trust’s decision to publish a summary of the reviews undertaken, and their subsequent action, as well as copies of the reports.  We note that the published reports have been redacted by the Trust, for reasons of confidentiality, and that because of this further details of the information provided to the review team, and their perspectives on the three episodes of patient care are not publicly available to read alongside their conclusions and recommendations”.

Notes to editors

The Royal College of Surgeons of England is a professional membership organisation and registered charity, which exists to advance surgical standards and improve patient care.

For more information, please contact the RCS Press Office:

• Telephone: 020 7869 6047/6052
• Email: pressoffice@rcseng.ac.uk
• For out-of-hours media enquiries: 020 7869 6056