NHS Tayside 'fell short' over Eljamel information request, watchdog rules
NHS Tayside "fell significantly short" when asked to provide details linked to disgraced neurosurgeon Sam Eljamel, Scotland's information commissioner has ruled.
The health board had received a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to do with an independent report on Eljamel's employment, which was commissioned after patients claimed they had been harmed by him.
David Hamilton said the board had only partially complied with the request and had "incorrectly withheld" some details, which he has ordered to be released.
He has also given NHS Tayside until 17 September to carry out a revised review of its response to parts of the request, which was originally made in March 2023.
A spokesperson for the health board said: "NHS Tayside intends to fully comply with the decision notice from the Scottish information commissioner."
The report on Eljamel's employment was carried out in 2019 by NHS Lothian's medical director Tracey Gillies.
It was commissioned after former patients raised concerns that Eljamel had harmed as many as 200 people, with some said to have suffered life-changing injuries.
Eljamel was head of neurosurgery at Dundee's Ninewells Hospital from 1995 until his suspension in December 2013.
The first evidence sessions in a public inquiry into the surgeon, external, who is now working in Libya, are expected to begin next month.
Reporting from BBC News contributed to this story.
