54 minutes agoShareSaveMichael Buchanan, Social affairs correspondent and Adam EleyShareSaveLinkedInSeven people have died following multiple failures by a heart surgeon who continues to work for the NHS, the BBC has learned.An NHS investigation found problems in Karen Booth’s cases included clinical errors, carrying out operations she wasn’t skilled or experienced enough to perform and not calling for help when she should have.Serious concerns about Ms Booth’s performance at the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle were first raised by her colleagues in 2018 – but the hospital did not launch an investigation until 2021. Ms Booth is currently working as a mentor to other surgeons at the Freeman, which plans to allow her to resume her surgical career shortly.Karen Booth “should never [again] practise as a surgeon”, said the family of one man who died after being operated on by her.The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the Freeman, did not respond to most of the questions put to it by the BBC, including why it thought it appropriate to let Ms Booth resume her surgical career.The trust did however point to a problematic working culture in the cardiac unit at the time of the failures, while internal reports have criticised poor governance procedures and a reluctance from senior staff to take responsibility over safety concerns.Ms Booth, a heart and transplant surgeon, did not respond to any of the BBC’s questions. The hospital told the BBC that the General Medical Council (GMC), the UK’s regulator for doctors, is investigating Ms Booth but there are currently no restrictions on her practice.Concerns over Karen Booth’s record have been laid bare through emails and documents sent by her surgical colleagues – seen by the BBC – as well as reports the Freeman commissioned and the transcripts of meetings that senior clinicians from the hospital attended. All the information was passed to the BBC by families impacted by operations performed by Ms Booth.’Seven dead, one significantly harmed’Ian Philip, a construction worker from Blyth, Northumberland, died after an operation led by Karen Booth in March 2021 to try to repair problems with his heart valves.Ms Booth had planned to carry out a complex type of heart operation called an Ozaki procedure, that very few surgeons in the UK are skilled enough to perform.The surgery was approved by the hospital solely for use in children and young adults, the BBC understands, though Ms Booth had permission to offer the procedure for patients with aortic valve disease.The procedure had not been discussed among the surgical team prior to the operation, according to the hospital’s communications with the family.Once in surgery, Ms Booth and her colleague discovered a complication and decided against using the Ozaki procedure, instead choosing to repair a tear. A serious incident report found that this was “good practice” in the circumstances.But further complications arose and the surgeons then failed to carry out a graft bypass, an operation the hospital later told his family was a “bread and butter” procedure that would have made Ian’s survival “much more likely”.Mr Philip, described as a loving man by his family, was admitted to intensive care and placed on life support. He died six days later, aged 54.Months later, an inquest was held into his death, but the coroner did not know that an internal investigation into Ms Booth was under way at the same time.She gave evidence and told the coroner that she had done “the best I could”. The coroner went on to conclude that Mr Philip’s death was due to “an unusual and complex set of circumstances [which] conspired together,” and that Ms Booth “had an excellent CV”.It would take over a year and a half for the hospital to let Mr Philip’s family know that the outc …
