Brain doctor to start treating patients again

A BRAIN specialist is to be re-instated by his hospital after being suspended from treating patients for nearly a year.
The restrictions on radiologist Dr Changez Jadun were brought in after some of his work was branded 'negligent.' Fears over the safety of his work were raised by both a national expert and then three of his fellow consultants.
His colleagues raised the alarm late last year when they made formal complaints about Dr Jadun's treatment of four patients at the University Hospital of North Staffordshire (UHNS). Three of the patients died.
Now, after a string of new reviews into dozens of patients he operated on, he is to be allowed back to work full-time.
The investigations resulted in a change the hospital's procedures after criticism was levelled at the way its medical leadership kept trust directors in the dark about the issue for two years.
And the hospital found a breakdown in relationships between individuals and staff groups in Dr Jadun's department was putting patients at risk.
Throughout the row the consultant has been allowed to carry on reading MRI and CT scans on people's brains and spines as well as suggesting courses of treatment.
He was first banned from performing procedures on patients last November and then stopped from even carrying out the investigations after details of the inquiries were published in The Sentinel in May.
UHNS chief executive Julia Bridgewater, pictured below, has confirmed he would be returning to his full duties at a date yet to be fixed.
She said: "As these most comprehensive investigations have found no fitness to practice issues surrounding Dr Jadun we will be negotiating a time-table for his return to work.
"He will firstly need to have some re-skilling because of the time he has been away from full clinical duties."
His comeback is expected after next month when all the recommendations from the reviews will be considered by the hospital board.
The probe looking most closely at his work was carried out by Dr Andrew Molyneux, from Oxford, who is one of the country's top specialists in the same field.
He found one case showed an "unacceptable lapse" resulting in a worse outcome. That resulted in Mrs Bridgewater issuing a belated apology to the patient's family.
But Dr Molyneux's overall conclusion was that the service was good with no issues regarding technical performance found.
He highlighted the poor relationships in the department however and said report forms filed by colleagues did not reflect the complexities and difficulties of the cases.
One had been "inappropriate" while another contained "misleading" statements.
Concerns had also been raised about the safety of more than 400 patients' MRI and CT scans Dr Jadun analysed over a single Bank Holiday weekend last August. Other experts have now re-read the scans and "no clinically significant discrepancies or errors" were found.
Healthwatch pressure group leader Ian Syme, who gave evidence to one of the inquiries, said: "Dr Molyneux is one of Britain's leading authorities in this field and in view of how comprehensive his scrutiny has been, I am convinced there has been no cover up here.
"In that case and as no problems have been found over Dr Jadun's practice, it is only right that he is allowed to return.
"These reviews have served to shine a light on a sub-set of hospital staff and shown how much backbiting there is among them so they were needed to make sure those failings are now dealt with.
"They should also ensure that major issues are never kept from the board again and that whistle-blowing must be encouraged."