Secret document links fired surgeons to patient safety allegations

A confidential document presented to regional politicians linked the dismissal of three surgeons at Rigshospitalet to concerns about patient safety, contradicting the hospital’s previous public explanation, DR reports.

The slide shown at a closed meeting of the Capital Region’s executive committee on 26 October said the surgeons’ departures were necessary for patient safety. It accused them of failing to follow scientific procedures for documenting experimental surgery, not informing patients about risks and alternatives, obstructing colleagues’ training and undermining patients’ rights.

DR has obtained the document, whose contents were confirmed by several politicians who attended the meeting. The professional publication Dagens Medicin has also reported on it.

Rigshospitalet director Rasmus Møgelvang and deputy director Jannick Brennum presented the explanation at the meeting. But on 27 October, the hospital told DR there was no direct link between the surgeons’ departure agreements and concerns about documentation or experimental surgery.

The new information drew sharp criticism from Bjarne Hjaltalin, head of the Association of Senior Hospital Doctors. He said he was “astonished and deeply shaken” by the hospital leadership’s serious accusations, given that it had previously offered a different explanation. Hjaltalin said the allegations had not been part of the employment cases handled by the association.

The case began in early October, when five surgeons in Rigshospitalet’s Department of Transplantation and Diseases of the Digestive System raised concerns about patient safety in a letter to hospital management. Three were first sent home and later dismissed. The hospital leadership was called to explain the case to regional politicians on 26 October.

After the meeting, politicians agreed to investigate whether the department had breached scientific practice in surgery. Disagreement has since emerged over who first raised the issue of experimental surgery at the meeting: politicians or hospital management.

An internal briefing to Rigshospitalet leaders on 28 October, obtained by DR, said the hospital administration rejected a connection between the surgeons’ dismissals and experimental surgery. The briefing called it “very regrettable” that media coverage could give the impression that the surgeons had left because of disagreements over experimental surgery, or that the hospital questioned their clinical expertise.

Several regional politicians disputed the hospital’s account. Tormod Olsen of the Red-Green Alliance and Jacob Rosenberg of the Conservatives told the outlet Sundhedsmonitor that they had not raised suspicions about the surgeons. Rosenberg said he left the meeting with the clear impression that the experimental surgery was linked to the dismissals.

Christoffer Buster Reinhardt, also a Conservative, told Dagens Medicin that politicians had not introduced the subject of patient safety and experimental surgery, and said there was a reason an investigation had been launched.

Hjaltalin also criticised the fact that the three surgeons had not been given an opportunity to respond to the allegations during negotiations over their dismissals.