What has happened to doc who took on PM?

Published: 23 June, 2011
by JOHN GULLIVER

WHAT’S happened to David Nunn, the leading orthopaedic consultant who made the headlines when he ordered a Sky camera crew out of his ward at St Thomas’s Hospital for not rolling their sleeves up – leaving a visiting David Cameron and Nick Clegg looking somewhat hapless?

Since then he has mysteriously disappeared from the hospital, his ward rounds and clinic taken by other consultants.

I can reveal that he has been given “leave” of absence by the hospital management with no indication that he will ever be allowed back.

Sacked? Not quite, but it’s the way top-heavy hospital management teams act.

Mr Nunn is one of the best “hip and knee” surgeons in the UK and much sought-after by patients.

I talked to one of them, retired teacher Deborah Burns, yesterday (Wednesday) who told me Dr Nunn had successfully operated on both her hips, and that when she returned to his clinic this week she was told by a member of the medical staff in hushed tones that he had been put on “extended leave” because of the “affair with Cameron”.

The person she talked to indicated that he “might not be back”.

It appears the staff have been sent an email by the management about a “member of staff” who has been given leave.

“It’s outrageous that he should be treated like that,” she told me from her Holborn home. “He just acted as you would expect a surgeon to act – he wanted to make sure his patients were protected and not put at risk by infection from visitors. What’s wrong with that? 

“He did a good job with both my hips. I found him a pleasant man. All I wanted from him is that he would do a good job – and he did it! Now, when I expected him to carry out an operation on my knee, scheduled for January, he is not available.”

Deborah told me she had chosen Dr Nunn to operate on her hips on the recommendation of another surgeon.

My call to the hospital resulted in a curt statement explaining: “Consultant orthopaedic surgeon David Nunn is currently on leave. As is usual practice, the care of his patients will be managed by his colleagues. The individual needs of each patient will be carefully assessed, and if we feel any patients would benefit from treatment at another NHS Trust we will refer them to the appropriate consultant.”

When I questioned the  hospital further, a spokeswoman gave what I believe will be the official management line: that Dr Nunn asked to go on leave himself. And when will he be back? “At this stage we don't know when he will be returning. There is no further comment,” she said.

Was No 10 Downing Street aware all this has been going on at St Thomas’s in the past week? Was their advice sought? Or did the hospital management, shocked that anyone could behave publicly in such a curt way towards the Prime Minister, decide to do a bit of brownnosing?