A surgeon at Addenbrooke’s Hospital has been suspended following concerns that operations on children may have been completed “below the expected standard”.

Kuldeep Stohr, a paediatric orthopaedic surgeon, was suspended by Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (CUH) in March 2024. While initially absent for personal reasons, a review was launched after other doctors noticed a “higher than expected level of complications,” among her patients, according to a letter sent to the patients’ parents.

An internal investigation found that nine procedures had fallen “below expected standards,” prompting a wider review of roughly 800 operations.

The latest report, commissioned by CUH and conducted by independent investigators Verita, identified “a series of missed opportunities, both major and minor, in how CUH and its leadership addressed concerns,” about Ms Stohr’s practice. It added that earlier intervention “would have likely reduced harm to paediatric orthopaedic patients”.

Concerns about Ms Stohr’s work first emerged in 2016, when senior surgeon Robert Hill produced an external review that identified shortcomings in her surgical performance.

The review  recommended clearer management structures, mentoring, and stronger record-keeping to improve the standard of work. 

Hill told current investigators that CUH “failed to draw the correct conclusions,” from his report and “demonstrated little if any insight into the issues confronting them”.

Radd Seiger, a retired lawyer representing 25 affected families, said: “This was not a rogue surgeon – this was a rogue system.” He accused the trust of knowing about “serious concerns” but failing to act.

CUH said it “accepts the findings and recommendations” of Verita’s report and has pledged to publish an action plan “to build a safer and more effective organisation.”

Restrictions have now been placed on Ms Stohr’s registration by the General Medical Council, requiring her to be “closely supervised in all of her posts by a clinical supervisor”.

CUH Chief Executive Roland Sinker said the trust was “deeply sorry” for the impact on patients, and described the findings as “a pivotal moment to change our hospitals for the better”.