Senior medical school leaders believed it was “not safe nor appropriate” to send students to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King’s Lynn amid concerns over leadership and training.
According to a BBC investigation published today, emails obtained under the Freedom of Information Act reveal warnings about an “ongoing and expanding vacuum of leadership” at the hospital.
The University of Cambridge and University of East Anglia (UEA) suspended undergraduate medical student placements at QEH in July following a series of NHS England reviews.
The BBC said that the reviews uncovered allegations of racism and sexism within surgical training, concerns about patient safety and students feeling unable to raise concerns.
“The review heard some resident doctors used the phrase ‘what you learn in King’s Lynn, you leave in King’s Lynn’”, the BBC said this morning.
The report also heard reports of trainees experiencing discrimination from patients, sexist attitudes towards female trainees, with women encouraged towards “family friendly” specialities and teaching sometimes directed towards male trainees.
In an email in July, senior Cambridge medical school staff said it was “not safe nor appropriate” to send students to QEH for the foreseeable future, warning of wider governance problems.
The Norfolk and Waveney University Hospitals Group said it accepted the seriousness of the concerns and was working on an improvement plan to strengthen supervision, support for students and the training environment.
UEA said placements remained suspended, but it expected students to return once improvements had been made.
