The HIV-infected surgeon known as Dr X, a cynical cover-up... and the whistleblower ‘destroyed’ by NHS

A SENIOR hospital consultant claims she was sacked after complaining patients were being put at risk by a surgeon with suspected HIV.

Dr Sheena Pinion warned NHS bosses that another medic, named only as Dr X, who had admitted suffering from a dangerous bloodborne infection, was continuing to carry out inappropriate surgeries.

Worried that patient safety was being compromised, Dr Pinion, who has a 30-year medical career – turned whistleblower.

Within months of making her formal complaint, however, she was suspended – on full pay – from her £126,000-a-year job at NHS Fife.

She was then paid more than £500,000 to stay away from work for almost four years.

Dr Pinion was then sacked by the health board. She took her case to an employment tribunal, which has now ruled in her favour confirming that she was unfairly dismissed.

Last night, the 59 year-old told The Scottish Mail on Sunday: ‘All I wanted to do was to protect patients, and I was sacked as a result. I was let go because I was a whistleblower, not because of the trivial reasons they dredged up after my suspension to use against me.

‘NHS Fife wanted to cover up what was going on and they have spent an enormous amount of money trying to keep this all quiet.

‘They have destroyed me in the process – my reputation and my ability to work has been destroyed by them. I was a good doctor, it was my life, and they bullied me out of there because I tried to protect patients.’

Scottish Conservative shadow health secretary Donald Cameron said: ‘Not only has the NHS lost out on a vastly experienced health worker at a time of serious workforce shortages, but it’s also been a long-running saga which has seen huge amounts of taxpayers’ money used up when NHS resources are under pressure.’

After qualifying in Edinburgh in 1981, Dr Pinion became a senior consultant in a Fife hospital in 1994, where she worked for 16 years.

In March 2008, surgeon Dr X – whose identity cannot be revealed – told Dr Pinion and other senior staff that he had contracted a dangerous blood-borne infection.

A source close to the employment tribunal later revealed the disease was HIV.

After the doctor revealed his condition, NHS Fife immediately recalled a number of patients Dr X had operated on to test them for the disease. Although the results from the patients came back negative, Dr X was asked to stop carrying out exposure-prone operations.

However Dr X continued to carry out some surgeries and Dr Pinion made a formal ‘protected disclosure’ to NHS Fife in 2010.

She said: ‘Dr X was still carrying out the kind of procedures which can sometimes cause complications needing to be dealt with immediately by doing an operation – which Dr X could not do without the risk of infecting the patient. I felt it was completely unsafe.’

She added: ‘The most dangerous situation was when an inexperienced doctor had been expecting Dr X to help them on a complex surgery. The doctor was not aware of Dr X’s illness, and instead of disclosing it, Dr X just never showed up – which meant a patient was lying open on the table without the necessary senior doctor present. It was so dangerous. I had to do something, so I reported it.’

Dr Pinion believes that bosses never investigated her concerns because Dr X had influential friends.

She was suspended in 2012. Reasons given by NHS Fife included Dr Pinion speaking over a colleague during a video conference and not responding appropriately to management in the hospital.

Dr Pinion was barred from working for two years but still received around £252,000 in salary. NHS Fife officially dismissed her in 2014 but continued paying her while she challenged its decision.

In its recently published ruling, the employment tribunal concluded: ‘We did not consider that the conduct of the claimant should be properly regarded as “gross misconduct” or that a reasonable employer would be acting reasonably in dismissing the claimant in these circumstances.’

The tribunal rejected her claim that she had been sacked directly because of her whistleblowing.

Now Dr Pinion is fighting to appeal that part of the decision.

She said: ‘People need to know about this – about the fact that whistleblowers are not protected in the NHS. I will probably never practise again, but I will continue fighting to prove what happened.’

Last week NHS Fife declined to discuss Dr Pinion’s case or her claims that patient safety could have been compromised.

‘I will probably never practise again’