Struck-off surgeon could face criminal inquiry

A consultant surgeon who botched 10 operations, leaving four women dead, could face a criminal investigation after being struck off by the General Medical Council.

As the family of one of Steven Walker's patients called for an overhaul of the system that monitors medical staff, police announced that a coroner would look into the fatalities.

Mr Walker was struck off at the weekend after being found guilty of serious professional misconduct for a series of botched liver and bowel operations, and breast reconstructions.

As well as the four dead women, six others were maimed or disfigured because of his substandard work at the Blackpool Victoria Hospital.

Mr Walker, 44, told the GMC disciplinary hearing that he wanted to perform operations that would put Blackpool on the medical map, but his cavalier approach to surgery resulted in an entire anaesthetics department refusing to work alongside him.

After the GMC's verdict, Samuel Lee, the coroner for Blackpool and Fylde, asked to be sent all the paperwork from the case. Lancashire police said a decision would then be taken about whether to begin a criminal inquiry.

Neil Saville, whose 86-year-old mother was one of the four women who died, said he was concerned about the failure of health chiefs to weed out the dangerous doctor.

Concerns about Mr Walker's work surfaced as early as 1996 but the surgeon was not suspended until 1999, weeks after Mrs Saville's death.

Mr Saville said: "He was warned two or three times as to his behaviour in doing operations. I would have thought that the hospital management should have said 'this is enough' and given him his cards."