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 there is no evidence patients had operations cancelled due to poor relations between staff members. We reviewed the case notes of the individual patients mentioned and found no evidence of patient harm.
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 Service 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.