Our response to The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times has published an article highlighting concerns in the safety and professional conduct of our oral and maxillofacial service at The Royal London Hospital. This follows an investigation conducted by organisation development specialists, Ibex Gale.
To address concerns and provide reassurance, Dr Neil Ashman, chief executive of The Royal London Hospital said:
“We commissioned the investigation after identifying concerns in the service and are taking the allegations very seriously.
“We would like to reassure patients that the service we provide is safe, and there is no evidence of poor outcomes for our patients as a result of relationships between our colleagues.
“At Barts Health, we do not accept any type of racist, homophobic, or misogynistic behaviour. We are committed to maintaining a safe and respectful environment, reviewing the findings of the report and taking appropriate action.”
We would like to clarify that the story was misleading on a number of points:
- While there was a loss of sight in three patients, only one patient fully lost their sight. The case notes from all three patients were reviewed by peers from outside the department and there was no evidence this outcome could have been avoided. The SIs were then closed. Furthermore, all three cases involved complex surgery and had known risks associated with it.
- Claims around patient cancellations have been written as fact rather than a claim from one of the consultants named in the piece. Though we have tried, this information is not checkable though there have been no cases where communication difficulties between our Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery surgeons caused an issue.
- While Nick Bunker is quoted in the report saying the situation is “absolutely” affecting patients, he did acknowledge in the report that he could not provide a “specific example ” .
- While the report was not a secret, it was confidential and upon receiving it, we established there was no grounds for patient safety concerns which would warrant the CQC needing to be notified. We told the CQC about the upcoming story on Friday, rather than about the report itself.
In the last five years there have been eight serious incidents and one never event in the service, none of the incidents relate to communication difficulties between our Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery surgeons.
The department has better outcomes than the national average for; all-cause emergency readmission within 30 days of discharge, readmission for sepsis within 4 months of procedure and readmission for further procedures within 30 days.
Patient safety is our top priority and we actively encourage the reporting of any concerns through our feedback channels.