London hospital consultant 'contributed to premature deaths', review finds

A consultant at a south London hospital "contributed to... patients' irreversible lung damage, poor quality of life or premature death", a review has concluded.

Dr Veronica Varney worked as a respiratory consultant at St Helier Hospital in Carshalton, in the borough of Sutton.

Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs the hospital, has already established 42% of 216 patients she treated for interstitial lung disease weren't referred to specialists, 30% received no care at all, and 20% were not properly investigated diagnostically.

Instead of referring patients to specialist teams, the trust said she acted unilaterally and often provided outdated care that ultimately caused harm.

Concerns were first raised in 2019 and Dr Varney left the trust in 2023.

She was formally referred to the General Medical Council in September 2024, with interim restrictions placed on her practice.

The Royal College of Physicians' review published today was designed to gauge the full extent of the harm she caused.

A representative for Dr Varney said she had no comment on the report.

The report says: "The review team concluded that in a substantial number of cases, [the consultant's] delays to or deviations from guidelines-based care potentially contributed to the patients' irreversible lung damage, poor quality of life or premature death."

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