Gateshead dispute was due to antipathy between consultants

A ministerial investigation of gynaecological surgery services at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Gateshead, has reported that the hospital's department of gynaecological oncology “provides a safe and effective service,” that “standards of care for women in the region with gynaecological cancers are high,” and that “quality of care is good.”

Health minister Alan Milburn's investigation follows a row within the department that had resulted in seven external reviews in 10 years and has cost the Northern and Yorkshire Region of the NHS an estimated £200000 ($320000).

Mr Milburn was responding to Newcastle MP Jim Cousins after an adjournment debate last year in which “serious concerns” were raised about the unit and a consultant surgeon, John Monaghan (22 November, p 1328). Mr Cousins had claimed that Debi Sinha, a consultant colleague of Mr Monaghan, had been victimised as a “whistleblower” for raising a range of concerns which extended back to the 1980s.

Reviews of the current clinical …