Calls for a Public Inquiry Grow as Families Seek Answers Over Botched Children’s Surgeries

Families affected by a widening scandal at Cambridge University Hospitals are demanding a public inquiry into how hundreds of children received operations now thought to have fallen below acceptable clinical standards. Lawyers representing more than fifty former patients have written to the Health Secretary, urging him to launch a full independent investigation into the cases linked to orthopaedic surgeon Kuldeep Stohr.

The trust is reviewing around eight hundred procedures carried out on children and young people, an extraordinary volume that has raised urgent questions about how clinical oversight was exercised and why warning signs were not identified sooner. Many of the patients are now teenagers living with the consequences of decisions made when they were too young to understand what was being done to them.

Among them is Amy, now sixteen, who says the harm she suffered has reshaped her entire life. She describes her childhood as something that has been taken, a loss that extends beyond missed milestones and into the everyday difficulties that define her recovery. Her experience gives human weight to a case that is rapidly becoming one of the most serious clinical governance failures in recent years.

For families, the central concern is accountability. They want to know how a single surgeon was able to continue operating despite what are now acknowledged to be procedures that fell below expected standards. They also want clarity on whether internal processes failed and whether opportunities to intervene were missed. The lawyers’ letter argues that only a statutory public inquiry can establish a full account of what went wrong and ensure that similar failures cannot recur.

The Department of Health and Social Care has confirmed that a national review will examine how complex orthopaedic surgery is overseen, signalling that the issues raised at Cambridge may have implications far beyond a single trust. Ministers say the aim is to understand whether systemic weaknesses exist in the way specialist paediatric surgery is monitored, regulated and assessed.

Such reviews are often lengthy, and families fear that without a public inquiry the pace of change will be too slow. They argue that transparency is essential not only for their own sense of justice but also for rebuilding public confidence in services that rely on the highest levels of trust. These concerns reflect a broader unease about whether the mechanisms designed to safeguard children undergoing highly specialised procedures are strong enough.

Cambridge University Hospitals is continuing to contact affected families, offer support and provide reassessments. The trust has acknowledged the distress caused and has committed to cooperating fully with national bodies. But for many, reassurance will only come when there is clarity about how the failures unfolded.

The request for an inquiry is ultimately a plea for answers. Behind each statistic is a child who expected to be helped and instead suffered harm. As the review expands and more families come forward, the pressure on ministers to initiate a full investigation will only intensify.