Secret files reveal fears over surgeons at Stafford Hospital

Damning secret reports which expose "inadequate, unsafe and at times frankly dangerous" standards of surgery at Stafford Hospital can be revealed in full for the first time by the Express & Star today.

The reports reveal psychologists were called in to treat surgeons at the hospital, who were operating in a unit described as "the most dysfunctional encountered by any member" of a review team investigating the department.

Experts from the Royal College of Surgeons arrived at the conclusions following two investigations into the surgery department at the hospital in 2007 and October 2009.

Bosses at Mid Staffordshire Trust had kept the reports under wraps but the Express & Star obtained copies yesterday after they were introduced as evidence to the public inquiry into failures at the hospital.

The latest report was ordered in the wake of a series of deaths and complaints about the surgery department following the arrival of new chief executive Antony Sumara in the summer of 2009.

The probe paints a worrying picture of a department failing to provide safe care to patients as far back as 2007 with former managers struggling to improve the situation by the time of the second report two years later.

In their conclusions the experts, who carried out a review of 40 surgical cases at the hospital, said: "The service provided by the general surgical unit is inadequate, unsafe and at times frankly dangerous.

"The department must not be allowed to continue to operate as it does currently."

The RCS warned the hospital that if changes were not made the only alternative was to close the surgical unit. They added: "The behaviour of many of the consultants is unacceptable".

Investigators found poor relationships between surgeons contributed to poor quality care.

And they added: "The general surgical team is probably the most dysfunctional encountered by any member of the review team. Its members are polarised and this causes problems for nursing and support staff, and crucially, puts patients' safety at risk."

As a result of the first review in 2007 the RCS said: "The trust has commissioned the assistance of an occupational psychologist and the team has been studied in-depth."

Maggie Oldham, chief operating officer at Mid Staff NHS Foundation Trust, said today: "We are not prepared to give any statement on the contents of these reports but we wish to stress that they have not been released by the trust.

"They contain personal and confidential data relating to staff and patients, to whom we have a duty of care and for that reason it would be inappropriate for us to comment."

* More from the Stafford Hospital inquiry in today's Express & Star.