'Butcher' surgeon victims want Lord Advocate to pressure police on charges

20 January 2025, 00:06

Patients who were left disabled and injured by the “butcher brain surgeon” Professor Sam Eljamel say they are being treated like “pawns in a game” between Police Scotland and the Crown Office.

Ahead of a vital meeting with Scotland’s Lord Advocate, Dorothy Bain, campaigners have told LBC they want her to pressure the police to step up their investigation into whether criminal charges could be brought against the surgeon.

Prof Eljamel is accused of botching hundreds of brain and back operations while he worked at Dundee’s Ninewells hospital, leaving many people injured and disabled, and the police investigation has been running for seven years.

LBC exclusively revealed last month that Bain, who is the head of Scotland’s prosecution service, had written to campaigner Jules Rose, criticising the police force saying “on any view this investigation has simply not progressed as it should have.”

She also said she has “been concerned for some time about the progress being made in investigating this matter" and had met with police in September 2023, to emphasise her concerns.

Today Bain will meet with Jules Rose face to face for the first time to discuss the case.

Speaking ahead of the meeting to LBC, Ms Rose said: "She [Bain] has to understand the pain and anguish that we, the patients, feel. We're embroiled in this investigation which is moving at a snail's pace. We're caught up in this battle and it's not acceptable and we need to get things moving.

"We are looking for assurances and for commitment. We want the Lord Advocate to agree to assert pressure on Police Scotland and to commit to a robust investigation."

Ms Rose also told LBC that recent communication from Police Scotland stated that its investigation had only begun to "gain momentum" in the last year, after the Scottish Government had agreed to hold a public inquiry.

The letter also said they were waiting for direction from Crown Office on next steps. Yet the Lord Advocate's previous criticism of the force suggested she was still waiting for them to send information to her.

She said: "We are like pawns in a game, being told one thing by Police Scotland and another by the Crown Office. We've been in this position before. There's lots of finger pointing and trying to apportion blame elsewhere. It's like deja vu. Meanwhile the pain, trauma and suffering of patients goes on.

"People are angry, frustrated, despondant and extremely let down. I've had some saying to me that they feel, since being butchered by Eljamel that the clock is ticking and they feel they won't survive to see justice.

"Police Scotland are saying this investigation could take several years - it's already taken seven, we're nearly at a decade. It feels like the wheels of justice are moving at a snail's pace."

Prof Eljamel was the lead clinician of neurosurgery at NHS Tayside's Ninewells hospital in Dundee where he carried out hundreds of operations over an 18 year period. Campaigners allege that even after concerns were raised he was allowed to continue to operate unsurpervised.

Jules Rose was his last patient before he was suspended by the health board. He removed a tear gland instead of her brain tumour in her first operation. As well as having to have a second op, she has been left with issues with her eye and suffers from complex PTSD.

Other patients like Pat Kelly was left with severe pain and walking difficulties, while 68-year-old John Blackwood was left blind in one eye and partially sighted in the other after being operated on 20 years ago to remove a tumour on his pituitary gland.

The campaigners hope that if criminal charges can be brought against Eljamel then the Foreign Office could apply to extradite him from Libya where is believed to still be a practising surgeon.

Police Scotland have said their investigation is “complex and protracted” but is being handled by a Major Investigation Team.

They also said that so far that two advice and guidance reports have been submitted to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service but that extensive enquiries remain ongoing.

NHS Tayside has apologised to former patients of Eljamel and says it continues to encourage anyone with concerns about Prof Eljamel to contact the Patient Liaison Response Team. The health board says it is committed "to do whatever is required to support all independent processes which are being set up by Scottish Government to respond to patients’ ongoing concerns.”

Former MP Joanna Cherry has been drafted in as the senior KC for the legal team acting on behalf of the surgeon's victims in the public inquiry.