| Ninewells Hospital-based Gerry Marr spoke exclusively to the Tele after he had to take action to reinstate a small number of patients removed from plastic surgeon Alex Munnoch’s list.
The Chief Operating Officer said that situation was “an absolute one off” and it was not the case patients were being removed inappropriately from other waiting lists.
Mr Munnoch has pioneered liposuction treatment for medical reasons and had been taking referrals from all over Scotland without the service being properly funded.
Yesterday, in the Scottish Parliament, Liberal Democrat leader Nicol Stephen brandished a letter from Mr Munnoch to one of his patients, claiming he had been told to remove her from his waiting list to meet Government waiting times targets.
But Mr Munnoch later apologised “unreservedly” and said he had been under no pressure from management to “alter waiting lists inappropriately”.
Mr Marr said today there were very strict rules surrounding waiting times and refuted any suggestion patients were removed from lists to massage waiting times targets.
“I would get sacked if we broke those rules,” said Mr Marr. “We would be stupid to do that.”
Mr Munnoch is the only surgeon in the UK who undertakes the highly specialised surgery he has offered to just a handful of patients so far. The new treatment is still being evaluated.
“One of the features of the health service is we are constantly challenged by the boundaries of science and technology,” said Mr Marr.
“Clinicians always act in the best interests of their patients but this sometimes creates creeping developments in services that are not fully and properly funded at the time they are introduced.”
Mr Marr has made it clear that patients who had already been referred for the pioneering treatment would be seen, but no new referrals would be accepted.
Discussions are planned regarding the possibility of a new service being funded nationally.
Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish Minister for Health, had stepped in and ordered the existing patients be treated.
“We understand the need for the Scottish Cabinet Minister’s intervention,” said Mr Marr.
“We have already said we apologise. With hindsight it may have been more prudent to simply discontinue referrals for this service until it was properly funded.” |
