FM faces questions over US surgeon’s cancelled visit

A leading US surgeon who was set to travel to Scotland to treat women left suffering after vaginal mesh surgery cancelled the trip after a “professional conspiracy'' against him from within the NHS, Nicola Sturgeon has been told.

Jackson Carlaw demanded answers from the First Minister after Missouri-based clinician Dr Dionysios Veronikis withdrew his offer to come to Scotland.

He had been set to perform mesh removal surgery - with Mr Carlaw saying the operation had transformed the life of one of his constituents after she paid thousands of pounds to travel to America for the procedure.

But he said that Dr Veronikis had “called off'' the visit, adding this was “mostly it seems due to a coordinated attempt to block him by powerful people in the NHS and the medical hierarchy''.

“The clear suspicion of many is that there is a professional and institutional campaign to frustrate Dr Veronikis' involvement.

“It is the view of many that establishment figures in the NHS are trying to protect their own backs, and I exclude any blame or suggestion of it from the Cabinet Secretary personally here.''

Tory leader Mr Carlaw, who pressed Nicola Sturgeon on the issue at First Minister's Questions, said leading Scottish mesh expert Dr Wael Agur had told him how “surgeons here felt deeply threatened by Dr Veronikis' offer to visit Scotland'' and that “no doubt there is a professional conspiracy against his visit''.

He branded that an “outrage'' and called on the SNP leader to personally intervene.

Ms Sturgeon said she was “not aware of evidence'' that backed up Mr Carlaw's claims of a conspiracy within the NHS.

But she told the Tory: “If there is evidence I would certainly want to see that and be in a position to take action.''

She also pledged to meet women affected by the mesh scandal personally, as she assured them: “This does have my attention, it has the close personal attention of the Health Secretary.''

She told how Scots doctors had been due to travel to America to meet Dr Veronikis - one of the conditions necessary for him to obtain clearance from the General Medical Council to treat patients in the UK.

But a visit which had been planned for August had to be postponed, due to commitments of the medics in Scotland, Ms Sturgeon said - describing this as “regrettable''.

Her comments came after Dr Veronikis, an obstetrician and gynaecologist, told the Sunday Post that he no longer believed the Scottish Government had “ever seriously tried to bring me to Scotland''.

He stated: “I do not have time for interminable discussions and feel I must now withdraw my offer.''

But Ms Sturgeon said clinicians were due to go the US in November and “remain willing to meet with Dr Veronikis if he agrees to reconsider his position'' - although she added that was “entirely a matter for him''.

The First Minister said: “Jackson Carlaw talked about efforts on behalf of senior, influential people. I am not aware of any such efforts, and let me be very clear about that.

“And it would not be acceptable for anybody in the medical community here to be seeking to block that and it is not my understanding that that was the case.

“Indeed it was the Chief Medical Officer here who personally invited Dr Veronikis to come to Scotland and it remains our wish that that can happen.''

Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard also raised the issue, saying it was “just so important''.

He told the First Minister: “Dr Veronikis offered these women the first glimpse of hope that they might get their lives back.

“The fact is First Minister, the Cabinet Secretary for Health looked Scotland's mesh-injured women in the eye and she gave them a commitment to a course of action that could give some of these women their lives back.

“The world-leading, pioneering surgeon, who the Health Secretary invited to come here, now feels that the officials and senior surgeons in Scotland, working for our NHS accountable to your government, obstructed this course of action.

“And at the centre of all this are women left languishing in pain. So your government has lost the confidence of these mesh-injured women, your Health Secretary appears to have lost control of this situation.'

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