Surgeon Who Ranted At PM Has 'Previous' - Sky News

2:50pm UK, Wednesday June 15, 2011

The surgeon who ordered the press out of the Guy's Hospital ward where they were filming David Cameron and Nick Clegg has been at the centre of controversy before.

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Almost 10 years ago David Nunn, a top orthopaedic surgeon, stormed out in the middle of an operation.

He was apparently upset that the foreign nurses assisting could not understand his orders.

Following the incident Mr Nunn accused the then Labour Government of creating "arbitrary targets" for the NHS.

In a letter to the Daily Telegraph he claimed political correctness meant that communication problems with foreign staff were not discusssed.

David Cameron at St Guy's Hospital making a speech on the NHS

"The world has been scoured for nurses to shore up the health service and to achieve arbitrary targets set by the Government," he wrote.

"All are, without doubt, well-trained and dedicated professionals, but if medical staff cannot communicate effectively then patients' care may be put at risk."

Mr Nunn, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine, has been a consultant at Guy's Hospital in London since 1990.

In the latest incident, Mr Nunn burst into a ward where the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister were talking to a patient and gave them a dressing down.

Marching up to the pair, he demanded to know why they had brought newsmen on to a sterile ward without washing their hands or rolling up their sleeves, as required.

Speaking to the bewildered-looking politicians, who had scrubbed up, he shouted: "Excuse me, I'm the senior orthopaedic surgeon in this department.

"Why is it that we're all told to walk around like this and these people ... I'm not having it." Mr Cameron then asked his aides and the journalists to leave.