Doctor caused serious harm to patients at St Helier Hospital, review finds

ILD is a group of conditions that scar the lungs and make breathing progressively harder. Most patients in the review had idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, the most aggressive form. Drugs called antifibrotics can slow it down.

The RCP found the consultant did not actively recommend those approved drugs.

Instead, patients were prescribed or advised treatments the review said had no evidence base, including antibiotics and a drug licensed for severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease rather than for ILD.

The review, external, which was commissioned by the trust and examined the records of patients chosen at random, also found:

The RCP blamed strained relationships between clinical leaders, the fact the two respiratory departments sat on separate sites, weak routes for escalating concerns, and disruption caused by the pandemic.

Responding to investigators, Varney said she raised concerns about complications and side effects associated with antifibrotic medication, saying she preferred to try other medications first.

She said some delays in starting antifibrotics were attributed to patient choice, as well as workload and staff shortages.

When approached following the board’s publication of the RCP report, her representative said she had no comment.

Concerns about the consultant’s practice were repeatedly raised by trainee doctors and through the trust’s whistleblower scheme between 2019 and 2022 and were not adequately addressed, the RCP found.

The consultant was stopped from seeing patients in January 2023 and retired that April.

In the report, the trust said it was clear in hindsight it should have acted sooner, and that some of the staff who raised the alarm were not properly supported.