TV drama on Eljamel could make ministers sit up and listen, campaigner suggests

A woman who fought to win a public inquiry into disgraced neurosurgeon Professor Sam Eljamel has said a TV drama could be made of their campaign similar to the hit programme about the Post Office Horizon scandal.

Jules Rose said those who campaigned for the inquiry, which was announced in September by First Minister Humza Yousaf, have now been approached by “several production companies”.

Likening herself to Alan Bates, the former subpostmaster who campaigned against the Post Office and its Horizon system, Ms Rose called on the Scottish Government to speed up work to get the public inquiry into Prof Eljamel started.

The neurosurgeon performed botched operations on patients while he worked at NHS Tayside from 1995 until he was suspended in 2013.

Mr Yousaf said an inquiry will take place after a review report highlighted how “concerns about Professor Eljamel were not acted on with the urgency they deserved”.

But with no information yet about who will chair the inquiry or when it might start, Ms Rose – who had a tear duct removed by the surgeon instead of a brain tumour in an operation in 2013 – demanded action from the Scottish Government.

Her call came as she revealed those who received botched care at the hands of the neurosurgeon have been approached “by several production companies that would like to make a TV drama just like the Post Office scandal”.

Ms Rose, speaking on BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme, asked: “Is this what it is going to take for the Government to sit up and listen to us?

“I would really like to think and hope the Scottish Government are taking heed of exactly what is happening with the Post Office scandal and the levels they have had to go to in order to be taken seriously.

“But I would like to think Mr Yousaf would not like it to go to that level and would act accordingly, quickly and swiftly.”

She said their campaign was “extremely similar in regard to the Post Office scandal”, adding: “When I am speaking to patients on a daily basis, some patients have confided in me, they have said ‘Jules I have felt suicidal, I have tried to take my life’.”

She said it is “not acceptable” that a chair for the inquiry had not yet been appointed.

Ms Rose added: “It appears to us that we just feel they are waiting for us to die or disappear.”

Noting that some of those affected by Prof Eljamel are aged in their 80s, she asked “How long is this process going to take, when are they going to get it started?

“An 80-year-old person, God forbid, how long have they got left before they can hopefully see justice and get the redress they deserve?”

As well as pushing for the public inquiry, Ms Rose has also raised Prof Eljamel’s treatment of her with Police Scotland.

She said “over 100 patients have lodged a formal complaints with Police Scotland” against the surgeon.

Conservative MSP Liz Smith, who championed the campaign for a public inquiry at Holyrood, said the calls from Ms Rose and “other brave campaigners” against the neurosurgeon “cannot be ignored”.

She added: “It is simply not good enough that there has been little to no progress on even appointing a chair to the Eljamel inquiry or announcing the date for the start of one to one clinical reviews.

“It is now four months on from the SNP finally agreeing to an inquiry into this scandal.”

She called on Mr Yousaf and Health Secretary Michael Matheson to “act urgently” on the matter.

Ms Smith said: “Jules and other patients should not have to suffer these excessive delays on top of the trauma they are already suffering, to the point some are feeling suicidal.

“While he remains Health Secretary, Michael Matheson must urgently confirm when a chair will be appointed and how justice will be delivered as swiftly as possible for patients.”