Novelist praises hospital’s ‘toxic’ unit

A BEST-SELLING crime novelist has praised a hospital department that is at the centre of serious patient safety concerns.

Quintin Jardine, the author of two detective series, has described how his wife was successfully treated in the vascular unit at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary and said he is dedicating his next book to her surgeon and his team.

An independent report ordered by NHS Lothian has described a “destructive, toxic culture” among the department’s consultants.

The investigation found relationships in the unit had broken down, with the clinicians actively looking for errors in each other’s work.

It questioned whether junior doctors were being suitably trained and whether patients were being offered the full range of treatment options as they would in other major UK hospitals.

The report said: “Very significant, rapid changes need to t ake place as described in our report as we believe the current situation amounts to a recipe for serious patient safety issues. We fail to see how vascular surgery can continue in Edinburgh if these issues are not addressed.”

Mr Jardine said last year his wife, Eileen, who is in her 70s, required an emergency operation for an abdominal aortic aneurysm – when the wall in a main artery bulges and can potentially burst.

Mrs Jardine needed emergency surgery to repair the artery last July and the operation was completely successful.

“The care could not have been better,” said Mr Jardine.

The report did praise the facilities in the department and said the results of the national “thoracic abdominal aortic aneurysm surgery” service were excellent.