We want answers from St Helier 'to honour our dad'

Charlotte Lunn remembers her father, Mark, as a family man who loved rugby and was always "jovial and fun".

He died last year at St Helier Hospital in Sutton, where he had been treated for sarcoidosis, an autoimmune disease that started in his lungs.

This week, Lunn received a letter from the Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust, informing her that her father's treatment will be reviewed.

He was under the care of Dr Veronica Varney, whose outdated and incorrect medical advice may have caused three premature deaths, according to a report by the Royal College of Physicians (RCP).

The trust has apologised and said it was offering support to families affected.

As her father's condition got worse over the years, Charlotte Lunn would often accompany him to appointments with Varney and found her to be "dismissive" when he was explaining the deterioration in his breathing.

She describes her father as "a big character" but said they both felt "belittled" in those consultations.

She is frustrated patients and families were not consulted during the review process, which revealed the doctor prescribed treatments that had no scientific evidence - while proven drugs were withheld.

The issues relate to patients with interstitial lung disease (ILD), which is a term covering a range of conditions.

The Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust board was made aware in November 2024 that Varney had "not kept up with evolving best practice and it was recognised that this was likely to have caused significant harm."

The RCP looked at a sample of 28 cases of people with ILD who had been under Varney's care between 2019 and 2023.

The report concluded that 12 patients had experienced severe clinical harm and a further three failings in care may have contributed to premature death.

In a process that will take one to two years, the hospital will review more than 200 patients who had been in Varney's care.

That includes Mark Lunn.

When she was informed by letter a few days before the report was published, Charlotte Lunn sought legal advice.

She wants to "honour" her father, who she said was a "principled man" and is urging others to come forward with their concerns.

"Dad's favourite quote was, 'bad things happen when good men say nothing', which he had written on a little note on his fridge," she said.

"It would feel like we could honour him if we could get answers that he should have had while he was still alive. And I think every family deserves that.

"Nothing we do or the hospital does now is going to bring him back but there's strength in numbers and I think it's important that everybody has access to the truth and to understand what happened."

Renu Daly, clinical negligence solicitor at Setfords, is helping Lunn and others to investigate the issues at St Helier Hospital.

She said: "Ultimately these families want transparency in line with the duty of candour, they want accountability and at this stage the families are hesitant as to whether they've got it.

"What independent oversight is going to happen in relation to those further investigations?

"Otherwise is it not just effectively the NHS marking their own homework?"

Dr Richard Jennings, Group Chief Medical Officer at the Trust, apologised and said the care patients received "fell far below what should have been given".

He added: "While the Royal College of Physicians' report makes it clear that patients were significantly harmed, it also expresses confidence in the changes we had already made to make the service safe, and we have accepted and acted on all of their recommendations."

He said the trust had contacted patients or their families to share the findings and offer further support.

A representative for Varney said she had no comment. She is being investigated by the General Medical Council.

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