4^th June 2014 [Blog No. 54]

Hello again, it’s me, Peggy

On Saturday, 24^th May 2014 we met with the Rt. Hon Sir Kevin J Barron MP again for an update on the PHSO situation. See copy of my letter dated 24 May 2014 to Mr Barron copied below.

You can see that I am once again getting concerned that my case is just being stone-walled by the system and they have no intention whatsoever of bringing this matter to a satisfactory conclusion.

Because of this I am going to show you here just how the solicitors instructed on my case have shown disrespect toward me, their client. See copied below a copy of the attendance note made by solicitor Charles Gillott at Irwin Mitchell solicitors when he had conduct of the case being brought against Mr Majumdar in his private capacity as the original operating surgeon. You will recollect from my previous blogs that it was he who had left the bony nodule in my Right knee during the operation in September 1987 when removing my Right knee-cap.

What I was not aware of was that Mr Majumdar was from time to time instructed as a medical expert by Irwin Mitchel Solicitors on other clinical negligence claims. Therefore, I allege here that there was an obvious conflict of interests by Mr Gillott of Irwin Mitchel Solicitors taking instruction on my case being brought against Mr Majumdar. I also allege that Mr Gillott should have advised me of this conflict of interests at the time he took instruction and should have refused to take instruction on the case.

In or around 1994 the Whitehouse Physiotherapy Centre in Sheffield had been recommended to me by Dr Moore, my then GP. Mrs Pauline Howard at the Centre advised me that in her opinion Mr Majumdar had left something in my Right knee during the 1987 operation and it not being a matter requiring physiotherapy. Mrs Howard subsequently advised me that she herself had taken instruction on medical negligence claims as an expert in her field of physiotherapy and suggested I put this to my solicitor. You can see for yourselves just how Mr Gillott received this information by reading the extract below as taken from Mr Gillott’s “ATTENDANCE NOTE” dated 27 July 1994 as copied below.

You can see that Mr Gillott considers that instead of relying on a physiotherapist (Mrs Howard) I could just as well rely on my Local Butcher to give advice. I now believe that I would have been better off instructing my Local Butcher as opposed Mr Gillott and some of the other solicitors instructed on my case.

It was Mrs Howard who had recommended I seek-out Mr John King in London, and albeit GP Mrs Dr Haldar had written to Mr Gillott in March 1992 advising him that she had referred me onto Mr King she had clearly lied, because she definitely did not refer me. I personally sought-out Mr King at the Independent Hospital in London in 1997 when medics at the Bassetlaw Hospital had refused to treat my Right knee pain at that time.

From day one of my case there were problems obtaining the various x-rays from the various hospitals I had attended.

X-rays had been taken of my Right knee at:

1    [1] The Parkfield Hospital in Rotherham prior to Mr Majumdar operating on my Right knee in September 1987 but they denied ever having them so they were never disclosed to my Solicitor. 

     [2] The Rotherham District General Hospital in November 1988 but plain films went missing.

     [3] On 29^th October 1997 I made a request for copies of my x-rays as taken of my Right knee at the Newmarket General Hospital prior to Professor Dandy operating on my Right knee on 29/11/1988 [See copy of my request below] but the Newmarket Hospital confirmed that all x-rays were destroyed after a five-year period. It was my understanding that x-rays should not be destroyed by hospitals until after an eight-year period had lapsed. Convenient, what?

1.     [4] The Sheffield Northern General Hospital on 9/1/1990 but they wrote to me saying that there were never any x-rays taken at their hospital on my attendance at their hospital in January 1990 albeit the letter to GP stated “Radio-logically there was no bony injury”. Mr Andrew Cash (Chief Executive at the Northern General Hospital) wrote to me in a letter dated 23 September 1998 saying he had investigated my concerns and there was no record of me having been x-rayed in January 1990. Clearly, they lied! See copy of Mr Cash’s letter copied below.

1.     [5] The Bassetlaw Hospital on referral from my GP on 16/8/1991 to their Radio-logical Department where I had four x-rays taken; one (AP View) of both knees together, one of my left knee (LAT View) and one of my Right knee (another LAT view) I was then recalled to have another x-ray taken of my Right knee (another LAT View known as being the 4^th x-ray of 19/08/1991) and which them at the Bassetlaw Hospital have always denied as ever existing. Albeit my husband and I had seen it at my attendance at the Dukeries Clinic in Worksop in July 1993 and again on 5/11/1996 when Mr Zeraati (Orthopaedic Surgeon) had identified that particular 19/08/1991 LAT View x-ray to my husband and I together with him identifying the bony lesion to us that was clearly to be seen in on the medial aspect of my Right knee in that x-ray. Again, they lied!

2.     [6] After attending the Grimsby A/E after a fall on 16/7/96 I attended the Bassetlaw Hospital again on 17/7/96 where an appointment was made for me to attend their Fracture Clinic on 19/7/96. This fact is important because when I attended the Fracture Clinic on 19/7/96 the first thing they did was to send me for x-rays of my Right foot and Ankle. Albeit Dr Nashi at the Bassetlaw Hospital fracture Clinic wrote to my GP Dr Haldar on 19/7/97 explaining that; “x-ray of the Right knee showed loose fragment over the medial aspect of the knee” them at the Bassetlaw Hospital always denied that I’d had any x-rays taken of my Right knee on 19/7/96. Again, they lied!

3.     [7] In 1992, Mr Harris (Expert Orthopaedic Surgeon) in Harley Street instructed a Dr Mourad of Diagnostic Radiology, also in Harley Street, to undertake x-rays of my knee but these x-rays also disappeared off the face of the earth.

However, when my husband wrote to him about the matter of the 19/7/96 Bassetlaw Hospital letter he wrote back in a letter dated 25 February 1998 confirming that the loose bodies referred to in Dr Mourad’s X-ray report related to my Right knee and were the same as the “Loose Fragments over the medial aspect of the knee reported in the letter 19.7.96 and the X-ray 19.08.91”. This shows that they had all lied about the 19/08/91 Bassetlaw X-ray and it not showing the bony lesion (loose fragment) on the medial aspect of my Right knee in that film.

When I attended the Appeal Court in London on 6^th April 2000 my husband produced Mr Nigel Harris’s letter dated 25/2/1998 as supporting evidence and Lord Justice Mantell advised that Mr Harris had given us all we needed to prove my case, and he therefore went on to refuse my appeal seeking an order for further disclosure of Medical Records (X-rays).

When we put this fact to Mr Tim Slow of Gosschalks Solicitors in Hull, at a subsequent meeting in April 2000, Mr Slow categorically refused to consider Lord Justice Mantell’s advice about Mr Harris’s letter, and I allege that Mr Slow went on to scupper my case over following weeks and months.

See copied below a copy of the notes I made of the consultation with Mr Zeraati at the Bassetlaw Hospital on 5^th November 1996 (and sent onto my solicitor on 2/1/1997) when Mr Zeraati identified in the 19/08/91 x-ray what he termed as being a foreign body seen on the medial aspect of my Right knee in that LAT view film. That’s the 19/08/91 x-ray they all deny existed. I’ve seen it on two occasions and my husband had seen it on three occasions when on the third occasion he actually held the x-ray while showing the bony lesion seen on the medial aspect of my Right knee in the film to Radiographer Mrs Carole Perry and Mrs Patricia Hewitt, Medical Records Clerk at the Bassetlaw Hospital on 3/12/1997 at the time when they promised to copy the x-ray for him. The very next day, on 4/12/1997, they had failed to copy that 19/08/91 Lat View x-ray. They all said that that particular x-ray did not exist nor had it ever existed they said! Once again, they all lied.

When I had a further consultation with Mr Zeraati in the New Year of 1998 he confirmed that he only had a temporary set of medical notes on my case but said he would put me on his waiting list for surgery to have the nodule removed. It never happened, in that when my husband telephoned the Bassetlaw Hospital they confirmed to my husband that Mr Zeraati had not put me on his waiting list proper for having surgery. That was when I personally sought-out Mr John King in London, and

I saw Mr King at the Independent Hospital in London in 1997 where and when he wrote to my GP confirming that my Right knee problem had not previously been properly diagnosed. When Mr King discovered that there was litigation pending he failed to turn up for my consultation with him at the Royal London Hospital and I had to make another appointment to see him the following week.

When I eventually saw Mr King he said he did not understand MRI film (those I had taken with me dated 28//2/1998 and which I had done at my own expense at the Claremont Hospital in Sheffield because Mr King had said previously that he was sending for an MRI but he failed to do so) and he discharged me from his care. As I was leaving his consultation room he sarcastically said; “its no good Mrs Barnes, you’ll have to learn to walk on your hands”, meaning before I would get anyone to treat my Right knee and foot problems.

Mr King subsequently referred me back to my GP for simply having pain management. He, like the others before him, left me crippled with knee pain until the bony lesion was removed from my Right knee by Mr Bickerstaff at the Thornbury Private Hospital in Sheffield in 2002 (paid for by the NHS) after the intervention of the then Rt. Hon Mr Barron MP, our Local MP. My ongoing foot problem has gone untreated ever since.

Had Mr Verinder not covered-up the negligence of Mr Majumdar and actually considered the bony lesion (loose fragment) seen on the medial aspect of my Right knee in the 19/08/91 Bassetlaw Hospital X-ray, which he had on his illuminated display panel at the Dukeries Clinic on 7/7/1993, I allege that he would not have referred me onto Dr Renshaw at the Bassetlaw Hospital and I would not have subsequently received the inappropriate and negligently administered Guanethidine Pain Block injection put directly into my Right foot, as opposed to a vein by Dr Renshaw at the Bassetlaw Hospital on 23/11/1993. Which has resulted in my now being left crippled with agonising pain in my Right foot from the now diagnosed osteoporosis.

Mr Nigel Tubbs (Defendant’s Medical Expert), Orthopaedic Surgeons Mr Harris, Mr Cherry, Professor Galasko and Radiologist Dr Strong (Experts instructed by my own solicitors) together with the so-called Medical Professionals treating me (or not) and the NHSLA all knew these facts same as the instructed solicitors on my case.

It also included the Health Service and also the Legal Ombudsman, the Information Commissioner together with Judiciary, those who presided over the many court hearings on this matter. I allege that I have been well and truly stitched-up by the system and I am revealing this to the public here as a matter of public interest because it could happen to you! These people will go to any length without limit to protect themselves and their colleagues.

Mr Zeraati at the Bassetlaw Hospital said at the consultation I had with him in March 1997 that it was more than his job was worth to admit that he’d shown me the Bassetlaw Hospital 19/08/1991 LAT View X-ray of my Right knee [Showing the loose fragment/bony lesion on the medial aspect of my Right knee on that date] when at the consultation with him on 5/11/1996. He did comment at that time that all his colleagues were ridiculing him. I allege that he meant for showing me the 19/08/1991 x-ray and the bony lesion seen on the medial aspect of my knee in the film and thereby putting his covering-up colleagues at risk of being found out.

I’m now hoping that when Health Service Ombudsman Dame Julie Mellor responds to the Rt. Hon Sir Kevin Barron MP she adheres to her statement as seen on TV recently when she confirmed that they were now being TRANSPARENT in their investigations. That will certainly make history because when Mr Barron MP had the Debate in the House of Commons on 6/2/2014 with Dr Poulter MP, the Undersecretary of State for Health, I allege that Dr Poulter continued the cover-up of the health professionals who’d had conduct of my medical treatment. I further allege that he'd also insinuated that I’d somehow physically removed some of my medical records from the various hospitals and the reason for me having vital damming evidence in my possession.  

This true story continues …….

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