Doctors working at a hospital embroiled in a major inquiry into failed care have raised further concerns about patient safety.
In a survey of hundreds of consultants and doctors at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, approximately three-quarters of participants described fears about speaking up, concern around the repercussions of doing so and low confidence that those concerns would be addressed.
The hospital said the exercise was intended “to better understand their experiences of working at CUH and identify opportunities for improvement”.
It comes as a review of operations carried out by an orthopaedic surgeon accused of botching children’s treatment continues.
Concerns were first raised about Kuldeep Stohr’s performance at Addenbrooke’s in 2016, but she continued practising until March 2024 when an external review was launched.
In February 2025, Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust confirmed nine children were found to have received substandard care from the paediatric surgeon and an external review of a further 800 patients was commissioned.
A 300-page report later found 32 missed opportunities to act on concerns about Ms Stohr.
The hospital trust confirmed the initial review would be extended to cover additional emergency orthopaedic procedures.
A new report published by the hospital has revealed critical testimony from senior clinicians at the trust who say they do not feel listened to when raising patient safety concerns.
The 86-page report, which has now been removed from the trust’s website, was written by the NHS’s transformation arm which deals with complex change in the health sector, and says that there is a sense within the workforce that concerns being raised are “not acted on”.
In one response, a clinician said: “I’d like to feel that ‘speaking up’ and ‘whistleblowing’ doesn’t carry any negativity.”
Another suggested that staff who raised patient safety concerns were “moved on”.
They said: “Unfortunately, most (if not all) of the consultants who have tried [to] tackle patient safety issues have either been sacked, forced to move on […] investigated for so long that they have forgotten their own names, or in the majority of cases, just given up.”
233 doctors and consultants responded to the survey. 13,500 staff work at the hospital.
Key themes within the report suggest that three quarters of respondents described emotional fatigue, and that when doctors have concerns they do not always get a response.
Another doctor said: “I have seen colleagues whose professional lives have been destroyed by CUH for speaking up because it was easier to silence that person than address the actual issue.”
The majority of doctors who responded to the survey said they would raise concerns but a quarter said they would not in some situations.
A spokesperson for Addenbrooke’s Hospital said the report had been shared with all 13,500 members of its staff “reflecting our commitment to openness and transparency”.
“Its findings are consistent with feedback we have received through the annual staff survey and other engagement exercises, and they will help inform further improvements to patient safety and outcomes by strengthening the way we work with and support our doctors,” they added.
“We will now work with colleagues to turn these insights into a clear programme of actions to strengthen medical culture and improve the management and support of doctors.
“We will continue to undertake similar exercises with other staff groups as part of our commitment to continuous improvement, and we will remain open about the findings so our teams can hold us to account for delivering meaningful change.”
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