The Scottish royal medical colleges have been urged to consider issuing advice to surgeons to stop operating for the day when a patient dies on the operating table. It follows an inquiry into the deaths of two patients at Falkirk Royal Infirmary-both were operated on by the same surgeon on the same day.
The surgeon, Nigel Harris, was cleared of any blame for the deaths, which occurred on 4 November 1997. He said in his evidence to the fatal accident inquiry that he felt able to continue with his list of routine laparoscopic operations after the death of the first patient. However, the eighth and last patient on his list that day also died.
At the inquiry, Professor Sir Alfred Cushieri of Ninewells Hospital, Dundee, who is one of Britain's leading specialists in laparoscopic surgery, said that Mr Harris should have stopped operating after the first death: “My own view is that a death on the operating table of a patient is a harrowing experience for a surgeon. In my view, the surgeon is emotionally and mentally not in the frame of mind to continue to operate that day.”
Sheriff Albert Sheenan, who conducted the inquiry, agreed with Sir Alfred's view and recommended that the Scottish royal medical colleges should now consider whether new guidance or advice is needed on the matter.
The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh has already arranged for a conference to be held during this summer to examine the issues raised at the inquiry.
The college's president, Professor Arnold Maran, commented: “We can understand the pressure that single surgeons are under, but I think there would be a very strong feeling that, when a surgeon loses a patient, he should not continue operating that day.”