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 Support The DrudgeReport; Visit Our Advertisers  PLAIN CRAZY Sun Mar 21 2004 20:50:56 ET A TOP brain surgeon has been suspended from work in a dispute over a bowl of soup, London's DAILY MAIL is reporting on Monday. Terence Hope is accused of taking an extra helping at the staff canteen without paying. The GBP 80,000-a-year neurosurgeon has been sent home on full pay from the Queen's Medical Centre in Nottingham, a teaching hospital where he is a senior lecturer as well as a consultant. Colleagues are furious at the decision. They say patients will suffer while the NHS is deprived of a highly-skilled expert at a time when there is already a critical shortage of neurosurgeons. Mr Hope himself has been left stunned and shocked. He told a colleague he was only getting some extra croutons. The surgeon, a 57-year- old father of three, spent yesterday tending the garden at his GBP 700,000 home in the Leicestershire hamlet of Hemington. Asked about his suspension, he said: 'I have been told by the hospital not to say anything at all.' There is understood to be no suggestion that Mr Hope was abusive when confronted about the alleged 'theft'. But an official complaint was made to hospital management after the incident last Wednesday and an investigation is under way. Medical staff are amazed that Mr Hope was sent home over such 'a minor misunderstanding'. One colleague at the hospital's neurological unit, which is a regional centre taking patients from across the East Midlands, said: 'It's absolutely crazy. It is only patients who will suffer.' A senior neurosurgeon and former colleague of Mr Hope, who asked not to be named, said: 'Terence Hope has an international reputation for excellence and is a leading light in his field. 'There are not a lot of brain surgeons around, in fact there are fewer brain surgeons in Britain than almost anywhere else you can think of. To pull someone out of the service is a very serious matter, both for the individual patients and the person who is dealt with. 'People have to be pretty desperate to go to a neurosurgeon and the surgeon has to look after them hour by hour and day by day. The consultant holds the whole show together. 'It is certainly true that if you take one consultant out it is very difficult for another one to take over. 'In a good department like Queen's no doubt they will take over. But to pull a neurosurgeon for anything, unless he is technically dangerous, must hazard the whole service.' Patients' groups were also stunned. The Trigeminal Neuralgia Association said: 'This does seem extraordinary. Any patient would be astounded.' The waiting time for brain operations in the Nottingham region is officially 39 days for outpatients. There are few brain surgeons of Mr Hope's experience and qualifications in this country. He trained at Liverpool University and has been working in the NHS as a qualified doctor for the last 34 years - 19 of them in Nottingham. He is a leading expert on vascular neurosurgery. The Queen's Medical Centre NHS Trust said last night: 'A consultant was suspended on Wednesday following an alleged incident at the hospital which did not relate to any patient or another member of staff. 'The matter will now be discussed as soon as possible with the consultant involved. In the meantime, the trust is not prepared to talk any further.' The hospital management is understood to be hoping to resolve the matter 'quickly'. There is a general shortage of skilled neurosurgeons in this country. In 2000, a report by the Society of British Neurological Surgeons said patients were dying need-lessly because there were not enough surgeons or specialist beds. It found that only just over< half of the UK's 37 specialist units had reached the minimum number of consultant surgeons and only 14 per cent had the recommended number of intensive care beds. Cases involving the suspension of medical staff have become a GBP 40million-a-year headache for the NHS. A report last year revealed that hundreds of doctors are left kicking their heels at home for months or even years because of bosses' incompetence at settling disputes. The National Audit Office said many cases do not even involve patient safety but are the result of personality clashes with managers. Between April 2001 and July 2002 - the last available figures - more than 1,000 NHS doctors, nurses and other clinical staff were suspended on full pay. The average suspension of a doctor costs GBP 188,000, made up of continuing salary payments, paying a replacement and administration expenses. END |
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