00:00 Hello, I'm Alistair Grant and I'm the Political Editor of The Scotsman and I'm here in the
00:08 Garden Lobby of the Scottish Parliament just after First Minister's Questions where we
00:12 heard from Humza Yousaf, the First Minister, that there will be a full public inquiry into
00:18 the disgraced surgeon Sam El-Jamel who worked for NHS Tayside. Now this is something that's
00:23 been a long time coming. El-Jamel was suspended by NHS Tayside in 2013 and there have been
00:29 long running calls from some of those who are affected by the surgeon's work at NHS
00:35 Tayside to have that public inquiry. But it's also a bit of a U-turn for Scottish Government
00:41 and for Humza Yousaf. Humza Yousaf was previously not keen on the idea of a public inquiry.
00:45 He preferred to potentially hold an independent review which he said would provide those answers
00:51 but might not take as long as a public inquiry. We all know how long public inquiries can
00:55 take. You just need to look at the Edinburgh Tran Inquiry. It's an inquiry that's taken
01:00 far longer than maybe many people expected. But we can expect more details on that public
01:04 inquiry into Sam El-Jamel and what it will mean in a ministerial statement by the Health
01:09 Secretary Michael Matheson this afternoon. I think there'll be big questions for NHS
01:13 Tayside to answer there as well.
01:16 Thank you Presiding Officer. There can be few things more important than the safety
01:19 of patients in our health service. One thing that is perhaps equally critical is the trust
01:26 that we as individuals and communities can have in our healthcare. Patients must also
01:32 have trust that where concerns are raised about their care and treatment, those will
01:38 be investigated and the necessary actions taken. They must be able to trust that their
01:45 concerns will be investigated, scrutinised and subject to robust governance and due diligence
01:51 at the time and not several years later. When trust is broken and such weakness in governance
02:00 identified, it's imperative that we do all we can to investigate why and do all we can
02:08 to prevent others from having the same kind of distress and traumatic experience.
02:15 The actions some years ago by Mr El-Jamal, a former surgeon in NHS Tayside, have been
02:21 discussed at length in this chamber and I know colleagues have a keen interest in the
02:26 Government's next steps. Several reviews have taken place into his practice, both at
02:33 the time and in the years since, after concerns were expressed by a number of his former patients.
02:41 The latest NHS Tayside review, a due diligence review of documentation held relating to El-Jamal,
02:49 laid bare the failings in NHS Tayside's response to concerns about Mr El-Jamal. It is clear
02:58 from the review that those concerns were not acted upon or followed up with the urgency
03:04 and rigour that they deserve. Now, several years later, many former patients still live
03:12 with the consequences and still have many unanswered questions. That is why today I
03:19 am announcing our intention to commission a full public inquiry to seek answers to those
03:25 questions.
03:26 [End of Audio]
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