THE First Minister has confirmed a public inquiry into disgraced surgeon Professor Sam Eljamel will go ahead.
It comes after victims of the rogue surgeon, who performed botched operations on hundreds of patients, have been repeatedly calling for an inquiry.
Speaking during FMQs ahead of a ministerial statement by Health Secretary Michael Matheson, Humza Yousaf told MSPs that the Scottish Government has decided to commission a "full independent inquiry".
Matheson later said the surgeon could be extradited back to Scotland. Eljamel is currently believed to be operating in Libya after he was suspended from NHS Tayside in 2013.
The First Minister told MSPs that the inquiry would go ahead after a report by NHS Tayside found that concerns about Eljamel were not acted on with the "urgency they deserved".
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In response to a question by Scottish Labour's Michael Marra, Yousaf (below) told the Holyrood chamber: "This is a deeply important issue, and I can inform the chamber today that Michael Matheson will use his statement to the chamber this afternoon to confirm that the Government has decided to commission a full independent public inquiry.
"This comes after very careful consideration of the recent due diligence review which said concerns about Professor Eljamel were not acted on with the urgency they deserved.
"In commissioning an inquiry, it remains important those people directly affected are still supported to find the answers they need and that both staff and patients across Scotland know that lessons are being learned.
"The Cabinet Secretary has considered the latest report on NHS Tayside and we have collectively concluded this requires investigation independent of both the board and Scottish Government.
"The Cabinet Secretary for Health will set out the details of the next steps in his statement this afternoon."
Campaigners, many of whom suffered life-changing injuries, believe more than 200 patients may have been harmed by Eljamel, who worked for the Tayside health board between 1995 and 2013, when he was suspended following three months of “indirect supervision”.
The NHS Tayside report, released last week, deemed that supervision "inadequate", and revealed he may have operated on more than 100 patients during that complaint process.
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His victims have repeatedly called on Scottish ministers to commit to a public inquiry and held a protest outside of Holyrood earlier this week.
In his statement to Holyrood, Matheson said: “I was of the view that there were other, potentially faster and more individually responsive ways to seek to find the answers for what [the victims] were looking for.
“However … after considering the findings of the due diligence review, my view has significantly changed.”
The failings exposed in the review can only be examined through a public inquiry, Matheson (below) said, adding the Scottish Government had not previously been aware NHS Tayside did not respond to Eljamel’s request for voluntary erasure from the medical register.
The Health Secretary added that there was no oversight from the board of historical information or concerns, and there were multiple reviews where no follow up action was recorded.
Some documents relating to the scandal, the minister said, had also been destroyed, in line with normal practice, when they should have been retained.
“I have reflected on the concerns of former patients and MSPs since the findings were considered by the board of NHS Tayside, and I’m clear that the board’s governance obligations were repeatedly not implemented,” Matheson said.
Asked by SNP MSP Jim Fairlie what can be done to force Eljamel to return to Scotland and appear before the inquiry, the Health Secretary said: “My understanding is that Mr Eljamel is outwith Scottish and UK jurisdictions, and it would be dependent on him actually being willing to return.”
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