Police Scotland should be stripped of the probe into disgraced neurosurgeon Sam Eljamel and English detectives should take over, a leading campaigner claims.
Patient Pat Kelly is demanding the drastic move after The Courier revealed investigators appealed to Scottish Government health officials for help.
“I’ve lost all faith in the police investigation,” Mr Kelly said.
Emails from November 2022 showed officers were struggling to establish if ex-NHS Tayside doctor Eljamel’s butchery was criminal due to a lack of medical expertise.
Detectives made a plea for help to Craig White, a senior health director, who was later assigned to set up the public inquiry into the scandal.
Mr Kelly, a former Dundee DJ, said this was unacceptable when the police are supposed to operate independently from the government.
“I just simply don’t trust the process,” he said. “I think the whole thing should be handed over to someone in England.”
He added: “If you’ve got a problem, you go to your boss, not the Scottish Government.
“This is an absolute mess of their own making. Questions have got to be asked.
Police first started probing Eljamel six years ago but appear to have made minimal progress since then.
The case was only escalated to a major investigation last October, after the public inquiry into the fiasco had been ordered.
We previously reported detectives had drafted in an independent neurosurgeon who was pouring over the files of Eljamel’s patients.
More recent emails, obtained by The Courier through freedom of information requests, showed the team leading the public inquiry had contacted officers.
In April, officials suggested police may want to “join up resources” with the clinical review being held into the rogue surgeon’s cases.
Mr Kelly is infuriated by this and sees no reason for Professor Stephen Wigmore, heading up the reviews, to work closely with police.
‘No faith or trust’
“I just cannot see how any review can go ahead with police involvement,” he said. “We believed this was strictly independent.”
He added: “I have no faith or trust in Professor Wigmore now.”
Mr Kelly is also frustrated by what he sees as a lack of transparency from leading authorities.
He said: “The patients never knew anything about this.
“What resources are they sharing and why? Why are they not telling patients what’s going on?”
A police spokesperson said: “This is an extremely complex and protracted investigation which is being investigated by the Major Investigation Team to ensure it has the experience and specialist knowledge required.
“Enquiries remain ongoing and we continue to work alongside partner agencies.”
A spokesperson for the Eljamel inquiry said: “The former patients of Mr Eljamel are and will be at the centre of the work of the Eljamel inquiry.
“The inquiry is a separate process from the Independent Clinical Review.”
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