A leading campaigner harmed by disgraced neurosurgeon Sam Eljamel will not let the upcoming clinical patient review probe his own case.
Patient Pat Kelly warned his trust in the process had vanished as he demands answers over secret talks held with police investigating the ex-NHS Tayside doctor.
Earlier this month, The Courier revealed officials had contacted detectives suggesting they may want to “join up resources”.
“There’s no way I’m going to go for a clinical review after this,” Mr Kelly told The Courier today.
“Not now. The trust is completely gone.”
Police appeal for help
We also uncovered emails from 2022 showing Police Scotland appealed to Scottish Government health advisers for help.
Detectives probing the case admitted they were finding it difficult to establish if Eljamel’s behaviour was criminal due to a lack of expertise.
On Thursday, First Minister John Swinney was asked by Tory MSP Liz Smith for details of exactly what advice officers were seeking.
The SNP leader, who represents Perthshire North, said he was happy to address the concerns of patients and agreed to meet Ms Smith and other MSPs.
‘He bottled it’
But Mr Kelly said his answers to key questions were “utter nonsense”, adding: “He bottled it.”
The former Dundee DJ wants to be included in the first minister’s meeting with MSPs.
“I have a massive amount of questions to ask John Swinney,” he said.
Mr Kelly said the first minister appeared to have been badly briefed before he was quizzed on this latest row surrounding the scandal.
At one point Mr Swinney said to Ms Smith: “I think I may have to have further exchanges to understand exactly the point she’s wishing me to address.”
The first minister said he hoped government officials would “engage fully and substantively” with any requests from police.
But that does not cover the reason Eljamel’s victims are angry.
‘We’ve been told hee-haw’
Mr Kelly said he will be unable to take part in the independent reviews until he has full transparency over police’s contact with government.
He wants to know:
- Why did police contact health officials to say they were struggling in the first place?
- What exact advice did government advisers then give to police?
- Why are inquiry officials suggesting they share resources with detectives?
He also wants all correspondence between the police to be released without any redactions or concealed information.
Mr Kelly is also furious patients only found out about emails between detectives and government officials due to The Courier.
“We’d been told hee-haw,” he said. “We’ve become second-class citizens again in this murky, dirty, deceitful scandal.”
The patient review was announced alongside the public inquiry ordered into the Eljamel scandal by the SNP last September.
No start date has yet been given for when the clinical probes will formally begin.
Mr Kelly is the only patient so far who has signalled his intent to withdraw from the process.
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