209 Patients Harmed by Suspended Addenbrooke's Surgeon — SkimNews

Get the Health newsletter
Daily health & science — research, biotech, public health, the studies worth knowing. Free.
- Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust disclosed in a board report that 209 patients "experienced harm" under suspended orthopaedic surgeon Kuldeep Stohr, with 41 cases classed as severe and one death, drawn from an ongoing review of more than 900 patients.
- Lynn, whose 13-year-old daughter Tammy was among the first to receive independent investigation findings last year, said the volume of harmed patients was "ridiculous"; the family's lawyers received a written admission that hip screws meant to improve Tammy's mobility were inserted in the wrong place.
- Another parent, Natasha, mother of 19-year-old Neave, is calling for a public inquiry into how children under Stohr's care came to be harmed.
- The trust removed the board report from its website after being contacted by the BBC, calling the figures a "confidential interim update" shared "by mistake in our public board papers".
- Stohr was suspended by the hospital and has not been at work since March 2024, initially for personal reasons, and her legal representatives declined to comment on the new report.
- Trust chief executive Nicola Ayton apologized, saying the trust was "deeply sorry" and was "making changes so that something like this could not happen again," with final findings expected in November.
- Elizabeth Maliakal of Hudgell Solicitors, representing several affected families, said she expected the final report to be "damning," noting that some child clients endured major surgery they didn't need and "fatal harm was caused in at least one case."
Why it matters: Of 900-plus patients reviewed, 209 were harmed and one died under a single suspended surgeon — a scale families say demands a public inquiry rather than an internal trust investigation. The trust's removal of its own board report after BBC contact also raises transparency questions ahead of the November final findings.
Ask SkimNews




