'There Could Be More Victims Of Birmingham Surgeon'

19 November 2014, 07:51 | Updated: 19 November 2014, 08:04

West Midlands Police say there could be more victims of a Birmingham surgeon who sexually abused his patients.

51-year-old Nafees Hamid was found guilty of nine sex assaults on six women while he worked at the Queen Elizabeth and Priory Hospitals in the City and was jailed for a total of sixteen years.

The University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Trust has now issued an apology to his victims after bosses admitted an opportunity to stop the abuse was missed.

It said an email complaining of ``inappropriate behaviour'' by Hamid was sent to the trust in 2009, but was never raised with senior managers, in breach of its policies.

The email was only brought to the attention of hospital bosses when the woman again contacted the trust in November last year, during the police investigation into Hamid's offending.

The NHS trust said the 2009 complaint was dealt with by an employee who sought an explanation from Hamid, which was accepted.

However, in a statement it added: ``The policy and guidance in place at the time stated that a complaint of this nature should have been escalated and investigated according to trust procedure rather than being dealt with at source.''

A spokesman said: ``The trust accepts that by not following proper procedures in dealing with the 2009 complaint, an opportunity was potentially missed to prevent the subsequent offences that occurred.

``For this, we offer an unreserved apology to Nafees Hamid's victims.''

Police investigating the abuse say they cannot rule out there may be victims of Mr Hamid who haven't come forward and are encouraging anyone who has been affected to get in contact with them.