Surgeons blame pressure from management for poor safety at Lincolnshire trust

A patient died after a surgeon was pressurised into carrying out three radical procedures in a day as part of a lengthy list because of waiting time target pressures at United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust, a leaked letter suggests.

The trust, one of 14 under investigation by the NHS’s medical director, Bruce Keogh, because of high mortality rates,1 is in the news after its former chief executive Gary Walker spoke of a “culture of fear.”2 Walker broke a gagging clause in the compromise agreement that he signed after he was forced out of his job in February 2010, accusing the …