Surgeon hailed a hero for exposing vaginal mesh scandal found guilty of serious misconduct over patient’s care

A surgeon hailed as a hero for saving mesh injured women has been found guilty of serious misconduct and dishonesty over her treatment of a Scottish patient.

Professor Sohier Elneil has also been found guilty of allegations over whether she had, or could, fully remove mesh implants in a single procedure. The professor, whose work was lauded on TV and by then-prime minister Theresa May, has now been told her ability to practice has been impaired.

The finding makes her the first UK surgeon to be professionally censured over a botched mesh operation.

Women desperate to have the damaging implants removed sought help from Professor Elneil after she appeared on a round of television and radio shows five years ago.

A Scottish mum received funding from NHS Highland to pay for her mesh removal surgery in London after the woman came to believe the professor was her only hope of becoming free from the plastic mesh.

But last week the Medical Practitioners Tribunal found Elneil, who works at University College Hospital, London, had been dishonest with NHS Highland about whether she had fully removed the mesh from that patient during a procedure they paid for which took place in London in 2017.

In a letter to the health board, Elneil had said: “We were able to remove the mesh in its entirety. It was quite firmly embedded into the obturator fascia.”

The ruling against Elneil stated: “The tribunal was satisfied that Dr Elneil’s dishonest conduct fell so far short of the standards to be expected of a doctor so as to amount to serious misconduct.”

The tribunal described Elneil’s letter as “deliberately misleading” and noted that she had apologised to the patient and NHS Highland for “not being clear”.

The operation took place before The Sunday Post successfully campaigned alongside Scottish Mesh Survivors to have injured women treated in the US with world renowned surgeon Dr Dionysios Veronikis who has a proven track record of completely removing thousands of implants.

The tribunal said it had “determined that Dr Elneil’s fitness to practise is impaired by reason of all of her misconduct”. It also determined that “a finding of impairment was necessary to promote and maintain public confidence in the medical profession and to promote and maintain proper professional standards and conduct for members of that profession”.

The tribunal ruled that professor Elneil knew the patient did not want a partial removal of the mesh, and also knew that not all of the mesh had been removed.

Before funding for the operation was approved by NHS Highland, the patient had sent the professor a message saying: “I’m so praying my health board will fund my full removal operation with you. Only the best will do and that’s you!” The professor responded: “That’s very kind and I sincerely hope the same. Will do my best to help in any way.”

Letters from the patient’s GP also queried whether the professor could remove all the mesh, and NHS Scotland’s Clinical Advisory Group was also asking the same thing when three Scottish consultants had already said that it would have been “unlikely”.

The patient said she had been devastated after discovering that the Elneil had not only failed to remove all the mesh inside her, but had let a trainee with only 10 weeks’ experience carry out the operation.

The tribunal found that Elneil went on to blame the trainee for the failure to ensure informed consent.

It said: “This has restricted her ability to show personal insight and apply remediation to her own practice going forward and demonstrate how her own failure has impacted on the patient and public trust in the medical profession as a whole.

“Insight into her own misconduct, therefore, has not been demonstrated.”

Elneil said in a statement to the tribunal: “I recognise that the care provided was not as holistic, supportive, or effective as it should have been. I have expressed my sincere apologies to the patient for this.”

She said: “I acknowledge that the challenges the patient faced caused distress, anxiety and a sense of being overlooked. The delays in communication may well have exacerbated feelings of helplessness and frustration, ultimately affecting the patient’s recovery and trust in the healthcare system. I remain deeply sorry about this.”

Elneil has been found to have acted dishonestly before.

In July, a civil court sitting in the Royal Courts of Justice in London awarded one of Elneil’s former patients substantial damages. The judge in the case criticised the doctor over “anomalies” in notes which he described as “an indicator of untruthfullness”.

The General Medical Council will decide what sanctions, if any, will be imposed.

Surgeon Sohier Elneil won awards for her mesh work

Sohier Elneil was feted and lauded by the great and the good, repeatedly interviewed on television and radio, presented with awards from BBC’s The One Show and a national newspaper, and described as a “remarkable surgeon”.

In May 2018 Elneil was honoured with the Healthcare Award at The One Show’s NHS Patients Awards, presented by Alex Jones and Matt Baker, with actor Michael Sheen announcing her as the winner.

In September of that year, Elneil was presented with a national newspaper’s Health Hero Award by then-prime minister Theresa May, after being nominated “for her role uncovering the vaginal mesh scandal.” She also won a £5,000 holiday. May told the awards ceremony: “Tonight we say thank you to a surgeon whose remarkable empathy and determination is not only transforming the lives of her own patients but improving care for others too.”

And addressing Elneil, she said: “You have shown the importance of championing the voice of patients. You have helped change the way in which mesh is used. You’ve made a real difference to people’s lives – you are truly a health hero.”

Elneil was also described by the prestigious New Scientist magazine as a “top removal surgeon” in an extensive article about her work.

And the British Medical Journal ran a full interview with her about her work removing mesh implants.

‘Utter betrayal’

The patient who took on Professor Sohier Elneil was one of thousands of women who suffered catastrophic injuries when she was fitted with a plastic mesh implant following childbirth complications.

The woman, who is in her 50s, had an active life before being given the implant after the NHS deduced to save £200 per patient by using mesh rather than traditional bladder repairs which have no such devastating side effects.

As a result, her mobility was badly compromised, she suffered constant agonising pain, and the life she once enjoyed was long gone.

In 2017, when Elneil was being lauded for her work, the woman saw her being interviewed on television and desperately turned to the doctor for help after learning no surgeon in Scotland could remove the mesh device.

© Shutterstock / Casa nayafana

The mother of two, who has been rushed to hospital with life threatening sepsis as a result of mesh, pleaded with Elneil to help her.

She sent the professor a message saying: “I’m so praying my health board will fund my full removal operation with you. Only the best will do and that’s you!”

The professor responded: “That’s very kind and I sincerely hope the same. Will do my best to help in any way.”

The patient applied to NHS Highland who, along with the patient’s GP and senior specialists from the Scottish Government’s Clinical Advisory Group, queried whether Elneil could completely remove the mesh implant in a single procedure.

The woman said: “I saw Dr Elneil on the television and believed what was being said, that she was a heroine and the only surgeon who could completely remove the mesh which had destroyed my life.

“She knew how badly injured I had been, and how I had lost all trust after being repeatedly lied to by surgeons who had told all the injured women that the implants were a “gold standard” treatment.

“I told Dr Elneil that I wanted a complete removal. She knew very well that I was not interested in anything other than that.”

The woman only discovered the truth later and was “in despair”.

She said: “I felt utterly betrayed.

“I felt betrayal and anger when I finally discovered that my operation was handled by a trainee with only 10 weeks’ experience and a handful of other procedures.”

The woman has since had a full mesh removal after travelling to the US to see world renowned expert Dr Dionysious Veronikis who she credits with restoring her trust.