Phil Barnes, from Shoosmiths’ medical negligence solicitors, is calling for medical research to come under greater scrutiny in order to maintain public confidence.
The medical negligence expert says the NHS must explain why patients have been treated with drugs that have been the subject of fraudulent research by one of the leading world anaesthetists.
Joachim Boldt is currently under investigation in Germany after allegations were made that he might have forged his studies into drugs called colloids.
Earlier studies showed that the use of colloids was more dangerous than similar treatments in patients who were undergoing surgery. Boldt claimed his research showed this was not the case and colloids were safe.
Barnes said that revelations of this sort will undermine the medical profession in the eyes of the public. The case highlights the need for proper scrutiny of medical research before it is used as a basis for guidelines.
When a problem of medical negligence emerges, patients must be made clear of its effects. People’s lives could be put at risk if there are flaws in research and the system must make public safety a number one priority.
57 year old Boldt was regarded as a world specialist in the management of intravenous fluids and his work had been widely published in medical journals in this country. He has now been sacked from a hospital in Germany and stripped of his professorship.
The NHS is already under fire for the sheer volume of medical negligence cases filed against it. Ten of millions of pounds are paid out in personal injury compensation every year due to clinical negligence.