Lawyers representing patients at the Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust extend patient safety investigation as more families come forward.
An independent review of surgical operations carried out on children by Kuldeep Stohr, commissioned by Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust last year, is being extended to cover additional emergency procedures.
As Healthcare Today reported in December, the legal team at Hudgell Solicitors had called for a public inquiry into Addenbrooke’s Hospital patient safety failings and had written to health secretary Wes Streeting.
Stohr was suspended in January last year after having her practice restricted by the Trust the previous October.
The first concerns date back as far as ten years, and at the beginning of April last year, the external inquiry into issues with hip operations performed on children at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge concluded. It found that the trust had missed multiple opportunities to act on earlier warnings and concerns raised about Stohr’s practice.
In November, she had restrictions placed on her by an interim orders tribunal for 18 months.
The extension comes after the review team, led by barrister Andrew Kennedy, was asked to examine an initial 90 trauma cases to assess the standard of treatment, alongside 700 planned operations.
In letters to patients, signed by chief medical officer Sue Broster, the Trust says the decision to extend the review was taken “following careful consideration by the independent clinical experts”.
Significant development
“This is a significant development, given it comes 14 months after the initial review was commissioned by the trust into the surgeries Ms Stohr had conducted in her time there,” said Elizabeth Maliakal, the head of clinical negligence in Hull at Hudgell Solicitors.
The final independent report findings are expected to be published in the autumn.
Stohr previously worked at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital in Stanmore and Great Ormond Street Hospital in London.
Specialist investigations company Verita looked into the surgeon’s actions in 2015, and the findings of that investigation were what Hudgell Solicitors called “damning”.
The Verita report, published in October 2025, identified how the trust failed to act upon the 2016 review findings and highlighted that none of the remedial steps suggested had been acted upon.
“The report was damning of the trust’s management of Ms Stohr’s practice, indicating that it had failed to properly reflect upon the 2016 review findings and ensure that it was understood,” the letter from Hudgell Solicitors said.
“It said the trust miscommunicated the report to Ms Stohr and the colleague who raised initial concerns about her practice, together with the wider staff group within the paediatric orthopaedic department,” it continued.
The Verita report concludes that there were 32 missed opportunities to address the shortcomings in Stohr’s practice between 2012 and 2024.
