BaronScarpia

NHS Tayside's approach to patient records is an indictment of its governance, record-keeping and accountability. I know this first-hand. At a meeting with @NHSTayside on 23 February 2026, Executive Medical Director Dr James Cotton offered to locate information from my original theatre records, including details that would have been recorded in the now-destroyed theatre logbooks. I then heard nothing further from Dr Cotton or NHS Tayside. I chased this in July, followed by a further reminder in August. It wasn't until 24 September that I finally received a response from Dr Cotton. And what did I receive? Three rows from a spreadsheet, supposedly representing the reconciliation of my three operations. Two were largely incomplete, containing only limited information about dates, named surgeons, anaesthetists and the type of procedure, with significant gaps in the remaining theatre information. The third included additional information, such as theatre timings, but offered no meaningful detail about the surgery itself and left fundamental questions unanswered. This was presented as the outcome of a reconciliation audit. Hardly reassuring. In his accompanying letter, Dr Cotton explicitly acknowledged that blank fields meant the relevant information had not been recorded in my surviving paper health records. But there is an even more fundamental problem. How can NHS Tayside assume that information contained in surviving paper records is necessarily complete, accurate or truthful? Given the serious concerns surrounding Eljamel's alleged failure to document surgical errors, wrong-site operations and other surgical failings, what assurance is there that everything that actually happened was ever properly recorded? Missing information is one problem. Inaccurate, incomplete or potentially misleading information is quite another! In this clip from the Eljamel Inquiry, NHS Tayside’s CEO Nicky Connor discusses "notes reconciliation" following the destruction of approximately 40 theatre logbooks, despite a Do Not Destroy notice, that had been issued by Lord Weir, Chair of the Eljamel Inquiry. Let's be absolutely clear: searching surviving paperwork and transferring whatever information can be found onto a spreadsheet is not the same as reconciling original theatre records. You cannot recreate evidence that has been destroyed, establish the completeness or accuracy of surviving records, or account for information that was never recorded in the first place. If this is what NHS Tayside considers an adequate reconciliation in an individual patient's case, why should anyone have confidence in its wider exercise? Patient records are not disposable administrative paperwork. They are the evidence of what happened to us, the treatment we received and the decisions made about our care. NHS Tayside had a fundamental responsibility to protect, preserve and account for that information. Patients have been failed in that duty. Now, instead of meaningful answers and accountability, patients are being offered spreadsheets, blank fields and assurances about reconciliation, while being left to chase answers and question what has been lost - or what was never recorded in the first place. You cannot reconstruct the truth from missing evidence. You cannot establish the accuracy of records simply by collating them. And you most certainly cannot spreadsheet your way out of institutional failure! #Eljamel #PatientSafety #Accountability #Transparency #Openness #Probity #InstitutionalAmnesia #Gaslighting #Justice #TaysideFour #DataProtection #CoverUpCulture #NickyConnorMustGo – at Westmuir, Scotland