in to receive their calls. russian war planes have launched fresh strikes on the syrian province of idlib — turkey and the united nations have warned of a humanitarian catastrophe in the event of an all—out offensive. a californian coast clean—up begins today, as plastic in the pacific ocean is collected using a 600 metre long boom. and graduates from top universities are about to leave the lecture hall behind and enter the uk's toughest prisons as officers. now on bbc news, the first in our new investigative series which asks who's checking your surgeon is up to thejob? reporter lucy adams investigates a top nhs brain and spine surgeon in tayside who stands accused of harming dozens of his patients. in medicine, it's basic. first — do no harm. i just want answers. i want to know so that my head knows what's going on. but who's checking your

surgeon is up to the job? well, that was negligent. there's no other description. a single surgeon accused of harming dozens of patients. this is notjust a case of a bad day at the office, this was repeated mistakes of a similar nature. and yet he's been allowed to simply walk away. why did you do this to me? why? why did you try and cover up? dundee — a city thriving in culture, but home to a health board in crisis. in which a cash strapped nhs board for new computer systems. the chairman of nhs connell, has resigned.

in recent years, nhs tayside has but i've been investigating other serious concerns — claims that patients have been irreversibly damaged by a brain and spinal surgeon. i want to find out what the health board knew about these concerns and why they allowed the surgeon to carry on operating. tonight on our programme, scandal which defies the profession‘s oath to, first, do no harm. pain wears you down. and knowing that there's nothing that can be done... ..scares me. david vile was someone who enjoyed life, an active family man

who liked to travel. but now he lives in constant pain. hi, david. his problems started a prolapsed spinal disc. i needed the surgery because i couldn't function, literally. i was just in unbelievable pain. he was referred to ninewells hospital in dundee and to sam eljamel, the top consultant neurosurgeon. there, he'd have an operation on his damaged disc. i had faith in this man that he was going to sort my back. a little bit of finesse, he's a brain surgeon after all. david vile had every reason to be confident. mr eljamel was a high—flyer with a formidable cv. he was even interviewed by the bbc. with the aid of the computer,

we'll be able to localise any point within that frame. he was tayside‘s clinical lead for neurosurgery, the head of department and a scottish government adviser. but the operation that david vile thought would be straightforward didn't work. i was in tears a lot of the time because it was so painful. mr eljamel offered him the chance of another operation. he said in his letter to me that there was an 80% chance of this resolving the situation, and... ..i was in agony, so surgery was the option that i took. when david vile came to, he knew something was wrong. when i woke up, i couldn't feel my legs, and gradually i got the feeling back in my right leg, but not my left leg. the feeling never returned it's now so bad, he can no longer work.

he can't straighten up or walk more than short distances. a typical day for me is really not doing anything. i don't take my son to school any more. i don't pick him up any more. i used to spend so much that was my passion. and i can't do that now. at a8, he's been told there's there have been times when i've thought... "..i don't see a future." the only reason that i go and because of my son. he's not the only one who says he's i can honestly say the pain i receive now since my surgery is much more severe

than it was before. because of the operation, my nerve endings have been destroyed. i'm going to take my first few steps of the day, and it's pretty sore. it'sjarring, like there's no cushioning to the body. so every step i'm taking is really sore. the pain is so bad that i actually want to rip my own face off. nothing that i take is touching it. none of my medications are even coming close to taking edge off it. i was a professional musician for many, many years, i travelled all over the country. around the same time as david vile, patrick kelly was also referred to mr eljamel. he had a herniated disc and was in a lot of pain. i was told it was a very, very dangerous operation, extremely dangerous. if they cut the wrong nerves, i may not walk again,

but i was prepared take that opportunityjust try to get my life back. when he woke up on the ward, patrick kelly says mr eljamel told him the operation had been a success. but on the day he was due to be discharged, there were complications. my lung had collapsed. there was blood all over the floor. the wound had opened. the doctor came along and said, "we're not sure where this blood "is coming from, but if it is internal, and goes in your lungs, it took doctors days to stabilise him and stop the haemorrhage. it was so bad, he almost died. just so... you know, i'm not really an emotional man, you know... i look back and i think, "god." you know, how lucky i was.

tramadol slow—release. these are painkillers with paracetamol. like david vile, patrick kelly's pain didn't improve. he thought he'd just been unlucky, until he saw this. the newspaper article was short on detail. it simply said mr eljamel had been suspended from ninewells after a patient had undergone surgery on the wrong spinal disc. are you all right there? this was more than seven years after patrick kelly's operation. it prompted him to ask for his own medical records and a review of his treatment. this is an internal e—mail from a senior consultant at nhs tayside, who later reviewed patrick kelly's notes. he questions whether the work on his discs was actually done. and of the operation,

he says it was "ill—advised" and that there was "no reasonable clinical basis to think that it would help." now patrick kelly faces the risk of permanent paralysis. he's in constant pain and rarely leaves the house. and with david vile, we've discovered nhs tayside also found problems after he demanded a review. another internal e—mail obtained on david vile was also unwise, and that the 80% figure mr eljamel gave him for resolving his the operations on patrick kelly and david vile took place more than four years before mr eljamel was suspended. i want to get an independent view of what's happened, so i've come to see donald campbell. he's worked as a consultant neurosurgeon for more than 30 years.

in david vile‘s case, overstated the chances of his operation helping. the figures that most people would accept for success rates are that 25% — or a quarter of patients — will be completely cured. about half are a bit better, but not right, and a quarter are no different. to say to a patient that you have an 80% chance of curing them is not, in my view, ethical, because the patient is much more likely to say, "oh, well, let's go ahead and do it," rather than say, "well, maybe i want to go away and think about this, "or talk about it with my family before we say yes." we asked donald campbell to look at patrick kelly's scans. as far as i can see, he's never actually removed any bone or disc. he's opened the patient and then come out again.

he hasn't actually even why would he make an incision... ..in a patient who needed disc work? i can't think of any explanation why how would you regard mr eljamel? to claim that you have done an operation in this critical area and then not to do it, knowing that the result of approaching the area and not operating on it will be to leave such scar tissue that no—one else is going to operate on it... ..it shows a complete lack of any consideration for the patient. so, he's ruined his chances surgery which could help? the risks of such surgery would be so large that i don't think any rational person would accept them. these are not the only concerns at nhs tayside. tayside says it received 55

complaints about mr eljamel‘s work when problems first came to light, it also called in the royal college of surgeons, who carried out an independent investigation. we've been asking for months for the board to release the findings of the report, but it's repeatedly refused. in fact, the first time we requested it, it wouldn't even confirm whether the royal college report exists. the pain isjust excruciating. it is probably as bad now as it was... ..before the operation. it's been two and a half, three hours since i took my medication, painkillers, this morning... ..but the pain is still there. the chronic pain is permanently in my left hand. and i wear these small latex gloves... ..to reduce the pain level. my right leg...

..being in a bath... feels like it's in a bath of hot water all the time, from the hip bone all the way to the ankle. whereas, my foot feels as though it's in a block of ice. it can be excruciatingly painful at times. we found evidence that bill murray, the patient that you've just seen, may not have had the operation that he was told he had. this is a report from a belgian after his operation at ninewells, it says no trace of it can be seen. donald campbell looked he hasn't touched the disc at all, and the whole point of doing the operation is to remove the disc and remove the pressure on the spinal cord. and you can see from the scan, that was not done at all.

and then to tell the patient that is simply not true. what do you think of that? it's completely unacceptable. it's dishonest. the fact that these problems weren't picked up earlier raises serious questions about the oversight at nhs tayside. i've been handed documents which show that not only was mr eljamel failing to use x—rays during surgery, which meant that sometimes he operated but that he taught his trainee surgeons to do the same, and that they, too, harmed patients. one of the documents describes how a junior surgeon carried out surgery at the incorrect spinal level while under instruction from mr eljamel. despite the trainee surgeon clearly raising concerns, he says mr eljamel advised him the site was correct and told him to carry on with the operation.

the patient ended up with irreversible spinal damage. sue grant is a lawyer who represents a number of patients harmed by mr eljamel. i do find it a little difficult to understand how trainee surgeons were allowed to be trained in practices which were... ..not approved by the other neurosurgeons within the unit, and how that was allowed to continue for as long as it was. but the senior members of the team in ninewells would have to explain that. it's highly, highly unusual for such a prominent and established surgeon to make so many surgical errors. this is notjust a case of a bad day at the office. legal sources say the cost to nhs tayside health board of mr eljamel‘s errors could run into millions.

so how could it have taken so long for anyone to notice that this top surgeon was making so many mistakes? nhs tayside refused to be interviewed for this programme, but in documents we obtained, it claims mr eljamel‘s performance as a surgeon probably only waned about three years before he was suspended, in an otherwise excellent career. yet we've found concerns about him stretching back 25 years. the concerns we've uncovered stretch back 25 years, but bosses at nhs tayside say they were only made aware of problems five years ago. they claim they took immediate action. mr eljamel was, they say, placed under supervision while they reviewed his work. but that's not the whole story. i've discovered that even at that

point mr eljamel was under supervision and under investigation, he was still able to harm patients. jules rose was a keen that changed in 2013 when she was told she had a brain tumour behind her eye. in august 2013, it appeared to go well, but she wasn't told her surgeon was under investigation and supposedly under supervision. i remember he had a big smile on his face, and he says, "99% removed." and i said, "thank you." just, "thank you. " the tumour was benign, but the brain surgery left her badly scarred and bruised. more than two months later, asking her to meet mr eljamel. he told me that he hadn't got all the tumour removed, because the tumour was now hidden and that was why... ..he had to go back in and perform

a second craniotomy, that he hadn't got all the tumour and i believed him. it was devastating news for the family. i think the worst thing for me and tell my two daughters... ..that i was going back in for surgery. i really didn't think to get away with it again. and that was a real worry. you know, i was scared. 0n the 9th of december, 2013, but she was so concerned she asked for her medical records. afterwards, when she read them, she realised the explanation given for having the second her medical records show that he removed

the wrong part of her body. instead of taking out the tumour, he removed her tear gland. as a result of her injury, jules rose launched a legal action. and in 2016, nhs tayside settled her case out of court. since the operation, she suffers pain and constant dry eye problems. she's been depressed and runs the risk of her condition deteriorating. it's atrocious... ..for nhs tayside to allow... ..this surgeon... ..who had blatantly made a mistake the first time, to allow him to perform another... ..complex operation. it's unthinkable. it's not acceptable. nhs tayside told us they acted immediately to suspend mr eljamel

after they received the results of the royal college of surgeons‘ review of his work. but that's not true. the royal college of surgeons told us it sent the report on the 6th of december — a full three days before jules rose's operation — report two months ahead of that. so, why was mr eljamel allowed if the health board had come to the conclusion that they were going to suspend him... ..i would have expected that that there must have been someone who knew he was to be suspended the day before that operating list, and he should not have been allowed to do it. after months of asking for it, nhs tayside finally gave us the redacted findings of the royal college of surgeons‘ review. and it's damning.

it talks about a surgeon who failed to supervise his trainees, who regularly got his juniors to do his operations for him and who rushed surgery. it says he was often difficult to get hold of because he was busy doing private complained he'd bullied them. so, what have the repercussions been for mr eljamel? he was allowed to retire from nhs tayside and to remove himself from the uk medical register, which means no further investigation, no sanction, and no disciplinary action by the general medical council. the gmc wouldn't give it said its priority is to protect patients, not to punish doctors. but for patients, it means no answers and no accountability. i think the remarkable thing

here is that there's simply no explanation the only person who can explain why they were misled is professor eljamel, has only been silence. i want to find mr eljamel and ask him some questions. but where is he? we know he's dissolved his businesses and sold up in the uk. we've been looking for mr eljamel for months, but he's been really hard to find. we think he might now be living in america, so we've come here to track him down. he still owns a flat in this luxury neighbourhood in connecticut. his name's on the buzzer, but it seems he's not here now. neighbours say he's vanished.

this is a recording... so we tracked down every property linked to him. i was looking for mr sam eljamel. we even find and speak to his relatives. i was trying to find a relative of yours, mr sam eljamel. i know him, but i don't know where he is. this feels like a man who doesn't want to be found. and yet we've discovered that he's paid his $200 dues this year for the american association of neurological surgeons — an organisation that stipulates members must be licensed to practise medicine. sam eljamel no longer is. not something he told them, though. and when the bbc contacted connecticut's hartford hospital, where he claims he completed a medicalfellowship, it told us he never finished the course. in spite of seemingly having a presence in the us,

we couldn't find him here. and it turns out that even lawyers in scotland taking cases against him are having trouble tracking him down. in fact, we've discovered they've become so frustrated at being unable to get hold of mr eljamel that they've asked for the court of session in edinburgh to order him to provide an up—to—date address so he can be contacted. nhs tayside told us it has listened to patients' concerns and taken appropriate action to support them. it said there has been much learning by the organisation and many improvements made, and that the board complies with all national standards relating to spinal surgery. mr eljamel‘s lawyer told us his client had no comment to make. our investigation has discovered

deep flaws in a system that allowed harm to be done to patients over and over again — harm that cannot be undone. it points to a scandal that goes beyond one surgeon to a failure in a health board and health system, that means a rogue surgeon went unchecked for years. and then, he simply walked away. this man needs to come to an inquiry and answer the questions that are put to him, because at the moment, he has said nothing. absolutely nothing. he needs to be held to account for what he's done. and nhs tayside, because they've we need questions asked in the scottish parliament. we need the waking up and make sure that this never ever happens again. hello, it has been a disappointing

start to the weekend. wet across northern england. the north midlands and north wales. the rain is falling at the moment but as we enter the afternoon, that should ease for a while. more rain forecast later on in the night. for most it will be cloudy. this mass of cloud, associated with an area of low pressure, the weather front moving off the atlantic, but notice to the north, in northern scotland, there is clear sky. a glorious morning and afternoon, and set to remain that way. this wet weather in central areas gradually moving into the north sea. that rain will ease down over the next few hours, and in the south, some brightness, we could get to 21 degrees and sunshine continues in the northern half of scotland. it's closer to the mid—teens celsius with quite a breeze where we have the rain. in the evening, that rain

clears away, as i mentioned. lovely in scotland, especially the northern half. largely dry in the south. cloudy and breezy, this batch of rain moving into western areas. mild tonight, temperatures in double figures. it could be chilly. low pressure to the north—west of the uk. some strong winds, these weather fronts will bring a damp start to sunday. bear with, it fronts will bring a damp start to sunday. bearwith, it will fronts will bring a damp start to sunday. bear with, it will be a little cloudy, but brighter for many. sunny spells, showers in western areas. a key breeze in the south—west but it will be windy with outbreaks of rain here. something warmerfor england outbreaks of rain here. something warmer for england and wales, outbreaks of rain here. something warmerfor england and wales, 21 or 23 degrees. low pressure to the north of the uk on monday and tuesday. high pressure to the south. a dividing line here, something

cooler in scotland and northern ireland. getting warmer across england and wales. we will see that split in temperature and weather as we head into monday and tuesday. cloudy and windy in the north, with outbreaks of rain. the mid—teens celsius further south, a bit warmer. less of a breeze, top temperatures of 23 degrees. this is bbc news. the headlines at three: the labour mp chuka umunna has urged leaderjeremy corbyn to "call off the dogs". in a speech, the former frontbencher said centre—left mps like himself were being driven out of the party. my message to our leadership is clear: it is within your power to stop this, so call off the dogs and get on with what my constituency, one of the most diverse communities in the country, demands we do. people being harassed by cold callers will be given

powers to stop them in new measures introduced by the government today. russian war planes have launched fresh strikes on the syrian province of idlib, as protesters call for international help to stop the offensive. also coming up this hour: for the first time ever, there's going to be an attempt to get into the middle of the pacific ocean to try to clean it up. and at three—thirty, click investigates the emerging