ALMOST 1,200 people have signed an online petition fighting the suspension of two surgeons in Scotland.
Both NHS staff and patients have put their names to the petition calling for Professor Zygmunt Krukowski, the Queen's Surgeon in Scotland, and his colleague Wendy Craig to be reinstated.
It has been claimed the suspensions follow efforts by the surgeons to raise concern about issues at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.
Some people have registered their support for the petition without their names being displayed, prompting suggestions that people feel they cannot speak out about issues at the hospital.
Patients have also described how well they feel they were treated by Professor Krukowski in the comment section of the petition, which had 1198 names.
One lady, Isobel Kennedy, wrote: "I have never forgotten how kind and reassuring he was at that time. Why is a person of his skill being treated in this demeaning way, leaving patients without his expertise at a vulnerable time in their lives?"
Another, Catherine Murray, said: "I was operated on by Dr Craig assisted by Professor Krukowski in November 2014 for thyroid cancer. I found them to be both professional and caring people. Dr Craig took great pains to explain in layman's terms what was going to happen and I knew I could not be in better hands. "
A medical source close to NHS Grampian said: "It is a powerful tribute that a spontaneous petition has received so many signatures from patients, members of the public and clinicians in such a short space of time.
"It is notable, however, that many of those who have contributed to the petition feel uncomfortable with appending their names. It suggests they may well be employees of NHS Grampian who feel uncomfortable to speak out."
NHS Grampian did not wish to comment. The board has said they are working with patients on a case by cases to ensure all procedures which would have been carried out by the two doctors are covered by appropriately trained clinical staff.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article