Lancaster whistle-blower Peter Duffy quits his profession amid fears he’s being ‘hunted’ by the NHS

Peter Duffy, 61, a consultant urologist who lifted the lid on more than 500 cases of “actual or potential harm” at the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust (UHMBT), had faced disciplinary proceedings by the General Medical Council over the contents of two disputed emails that were produced years after his whistle-blowing.

However, the UK's chief medical regulator has now dropped the two-and-a-half year investigation after finding there was no case to answer.

Mr Duffy had raised concerns that the emails may have been falsified or tampered with since they appeared in 2020.

And Tommy Greene, reporting for Byline Times, said Mr Duffy claimed the emails could have put him in the frame for negligence and possible medical manslaughter charges, with private investigators having used them to try to “extract a confession” over an avoidable death that he himself had blown the whistle on while at UHMBT.

The report says that in a 30-page decision letter, the GMC highlighted the “particular regard” it gave “to our inability to place weight” on an NHS-commissioned review of the emails that had found no evidence of tampering or foul play.

The GMC was unable to place any weight on the report into Mr Duffy’s claims of email falsification since it was not fully disclosed to the regulator during the course of its 30-month probe.

Leading IT experts also highlighted a lack of adequate analysis and evidence around the emails in question.

UHMBT, NHS England and the private firm it hired to investigate the trust’s urology services, Niche Health & Social Care Consulting, have all maintained that the emails are genuine.

However, the emails were not found in a 2018 search of the trust's IT system, as confirmed in Morecambe Bay's correspondence with the 2018 Employment Tribunal, when UHMBT was forced to pay Mr Duffy more than £100,000 through a constructive dismissal claim.

Nor were they present later in 2018 when the tribunal judge ordered a repeat search of the trust’s IT system for all correspondence relating to Morecambe man Peter Read, the avoidable death at the centre of Duffy's whistleblowing and whose name allegedly appeared in both contested emails.

Neither search was disclosed to the Niche investigation, as trust chief executive Aaron Cummins confirmed under a Freedom of Information Act request by Mr Duffy in February.

Niche Health & Social Care Consulting has been paid around £5m by NHS England since it began its work at UHMBT.

Mr Duffy has gone on to write two books about his experiences, Whistle in the Wind and Smoke and Mirrors.

Speaking after this week's announcement, Mr Duffy told the Lancaster Guardian how he was "stunned" when first told about the emails, and even considered taking his own life.

The disputed emails could have seen him struck off and potentially facing criminal charges, he said.

"I was immediately certain that they were fakes, but they wore me down, talked me into believing that my memory was at fault," he said. "I really thought I was getting dementia, that everything I thought I knew and had written about was mistaken. I felt like such a hypocrite.

"Suicide really seemed by far the best way out. Looking back, it’s terrifying to remember how close I came.

"When I think back, it was such a close shave. I could easily have ended up struck off, being charged with manslaughter on the basis of these emails, or ending my own life."

Mr Duffy has most recently been working at Noble's Hospital on the Isle of Man, but will be leaving the profession next month after 43 years in the NHS.

"I’d have loved to have kept going for another five years or so, but I can’t shake this sense of being hunted," he said.

"I’m really fearful that, after this, the NHS will just come back with yet more allegations and will keep going until they get the result they want.

"The best defence is to hand in my license as a doctor and resign the profession. It’s sad, but there we are.

"My last operating list will be on the morning of July 7. After 43 years of living and breathing surgery and the NHS, it’ll be an emotional few hours."

Aaron Cummins, chief executive of University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Whilst we respect Mr Duffy’s right to share his version of events in whatever way he feels appropriate, it is important to remember that the recent and extensive independent investigation by Niche Health and Social Care Consulting, commissioned by NHS England and NHS Improvement, looked into all of the concerns raised about the trust’s urology services, including those concerns outlined in Mr Duffy’s first book. That investigation stated that not all the claims in that book were accurate.

“With regards to the claims that these emails were falsified, the two separate independent, external reviews of those allegations conducted by Niche Health and Social Care Consulting as part of their investigation found no evidence the emails in question were tampered with and no evidence they were not sent from Mr Duffy’s NHS hospital email account.”

A GMC spokesperson said that it would not comment on the email “complaints and concerns."