Senior physician brings fierce criticism of management in the cancer department

The chief doctor of the cancer department at Aarhus University Hospital has issued illegal instructions to the department’s doctors, and the management has given incorrect information to the authorities in a case about long waiting times for cancer patients.

This is the opinion of three senior doctors who have sent a letter to the group management in Region Central Jutland. This is written by Jyllands-Posten.

The illegal instructions have, among other things, come about because pressure has been put on the doctors to offer fewer cancer patients a certain type of operation, the letter reads.

The criticism is directed at chief physician Charlotte Buchard Nørager and the department’s other management.

According to the chief doctor, the illegal instructions mentioned in the letter have already been mentioned in the press.

“The illegal instructions mentioned by the three chief doctors are the instructions that have already been criticized in the media and in the Attorney General’s report, and which we have apologized for and changed”, she says in a written response to the newspaper.

The case of long waiting times began in March, when it emerged that 293 patients with bowel cancer have waited an unnecessarily long time for an operation at Aarhus University Hospital. It was in the period January 2022 up to and including February this year.

The number has since grown to 313.

The patients have had to wait up to eight weeks for an operation, even though they have a legal requirement to be operated on after two weeks at the latest. For some, this has meant that their cancer has spread and become incurable.

In the wake of the case, two impartial investigations were launched. The investigation has since cost two hospital directors their jobs.

The case has just cost two hospital directors their jobs.

These are medical director Claus Thomsen and hospital director Poul Blaabjerg.