Chamber and committees

Neither the Scottish Government nor NHS Central Legal Office holds the information sought.

The General Medical Council (GMC) sets the professional standards to which all UK doctors must work as a condition of continuing registration; recording their work, establishing and maintaining partnerships with patients, and acting with honesty and integrity. Where serious concerns are raised about a doctor’s behaviour or professional performance, the GMC will investigate and take action where necessary. The GMC will normally work with employers (where applicable) in the first instance, to see if there are any wider concerns about a doctor and identify if concerns relate to contractual matters or potentially impaired fitness to practise. Where a doctor’s fitness to practise is found by a panel of the Medical Practitioners’ Tribunal Service (MPTS) to be impaired for any reason, that panel will impose appropriate professional sanctions such as a period of supervised practice or, for the most serious failures, erasure from the medical register and removal of licence to practise.

Any visit by Dr Veronikis will take place after discussions with the Chief Medical Officer who, as set out in response to S5W-25664 on 8 November 2019, is visiting him in the US this week. As previously advised in answer to S5O-03531 on 12 September 2019, Dr Veronikis has indicated that he has clinical commitments until at least January 2020.

All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx .

The Scottish Government would encourage any woman who is pursuing a case to apply for Legal Aid should she feel she may qualify. Advice on Legal Aid is available here .

NHS Central Legal Office confirms that no cases that are part of a large group action have been settled out of court. It is understood a small number of individual clinical negligence cases involving mesh have settled in this way; however for reasons of confidentiality a precise number cannot be stated.

NHS Central Legal Office is not aware of any of any case where a pursuer has been required to sign a non-disclosure agreement.

Any material taken to the US will be determined by the clinicians undertaking the visit.

Scottish clinicians were not requested to provide evidence of skills prior to travelling to the US. However, comparison of techniques and review of available objective evidence of both benefit and harm, will form part of the discussions clinicians are undertaking during their visit there.

The award of any contract is a matter for the Health Board concerned, once it has applied due diligence. The Health Board providing the contract determines how it would assure itself, depending on the nature of what is being proposed. An important consideration is the evidence of practice it is in a position to assess, for example previous contacts and experience with existing clinicians, the availability of published papers, etc. In addition, there are a number of details that would need to be clarified prior to any visit, including patient selection, pre-op assessment and imaging, after-care and follow-up, time period, terms and conditions, remuneration, and so on.

The precise detail of any contract, including in the case of Dr Veronikis, will therefore be considered on this basis as for other visiting clinicians.

The Chief Medical Officer has had high-level discussions with clinicians concerning technique. As indicated in answer to S5W-25675 on 8 November 2019, technique forms part of the discussions the Chief Medical Officer and clinicians are undertaking during their trip to the US.

All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at: http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx