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Instead of referring patients to specialist teams, the trust said she acted unilaterally and often provided outdated care that ultimately caused harm.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

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

The report said "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."

It said there was "frequent variability in clinical history taking, delays in referrals of patients for MDT discussion and to tertiary centres, and inaccuracies in the reporting of diagnostic results".

Out of 28 cases it examined, the review said 12 had caused "severe clinical harm" (permanent or long term); three were graded as "death" as the patient wasn't given access to treatments that can extend life; seven resulted in "moderate clinical harm" (short term); and one case was "low clinical harm".

Dr Varney, referred to as 'Dr X' in the report, is said to have given patients "non-evidence-based and off-label treatments" for their lung disease, such as avoiding rapeseed oil and the COVID vaccines, and "did not actively recommend approved therapies".

She also showed "poor interpretation of lung function test results" and that her "limited and inconsistent" use of expert multi-disciplinary teams "contributed to delays in diagnosis, decision making and access to timely treatment".

The report also criticises health bosses at the trust between 2019 and 2022, who it says didn't properly address concerns over Dr Varney due to factors including "strained relationships among clinical leads" and "poor escalation pathways".

"A historical lack of integration between the St Helier and Epsom sites and tensions within the clinical leadership created a challenging environment for staff to raise and respond to concerns," the review states.

It adds that recent changes in leadership have improved governance and team dynamics, meaning "the current respiratory team is well-positioned to drive meaningful improvements".

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(c) Sky News 2026: South London hospital consultant 'contributed to premature deaths', review finds