Five surgeons quit top hospital over patient care fears

An investigation has been launched after five surgeons quit their jobs at a leading London hospital amid allegations it was putting patients in danger.

One of the doctors said people had been "left with life-changing injuries" because of a "dangerous" shortage of surgical facilities at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel.

In a resignation email to colleagues, orthopaedic surgeon David Goodier wrote: "The supplies situation is dangerous. We are regularly out of kit, out of nurses, and always out of beds."

He continued: "I did an operation last week on a fracture that kept getting bumped by more urgent cases. It was three weeks down the line and healed in a bad position. There was nothing I could do for him."

He concluded: "I have been complicit in a poor standard of trauma care and am guilty of negligence by association."

Barts and the London Trust has now launched an inquiry and invited a team from the Royal College of Surgeons to carry out an independent investigation.

The resignations mean almost half the hospital's 14 orthopaedic surgeons have now handed in their notice. A spokesman for the Trust said it had "one of the best clinical safety records in the NHS and the second lowest mortality rate in England". He added: "The concerns raised around the availability of surgical instruments have been addressed and significant improvements made."