A former clinical director of surgery at Noble’s Hospital claims he was the target of co-ordinated bullying.

Andre Risha, who is standing as House of Keys candidate in Middle in the general election, has responded to a leaked report into the general surgery service which exposed a toxic culture with claims of bullying and junior staff fearful of raising concerns.

The 2025 report recommended a change of clinical director within general surgery.

Mr Risha, currently chair of the Medical Staff Committee, was the clinical director of surgery at the time and was in post for five years. He maintains this was a different position to the one of clinical director of general surgery.

He welcomed the reporting of the leaked report.

Mr Risha said: ‘I am actually pleased that someone has chosen to leak this report.

‘I had strongly considered releasing it to the press myself to expose the reality of what transpired. However, I deliberately refrained from doing so, as leaking such a document constitutes a major breach of confidentiality.’

He claimed: ‘I was, in fact, the target of co-ordinated bullying.

‘Astonishingly, [this was] enabled and supported by management. Specific staff members actively refused to perform their allocated tasks. This insubordination rendered the department totally dysfunctional, posing a severe risk to service delivery.

‘To address this crisis, I executed a strategic and expert reshuffling of the staff. This restructuring was the only possible way to restore functionality and stability to the department. It is a testament to the efficacy of my intervention that these structural changes are still successfully applied today.’

Manx Care has said work is progressing on implementing the recommendations of the report which was commissioned by the interim executive medical director in 2024.

It followed complaints from junior doctors concerning insufficient supervision and support, and subsequent patient safety incidents classified as ‘Serious Untoward Incidents’.

The report, marked private and confidential and seen by Isle of Man Today, did not identify any major concerns about overall quality and safety in the general surgery service.

But the review team raised concerns at the standards of teamwork at the consultant level which they considered ‘dysfunctional and toxic’. ‘This had an impact throughout the general surgery department and was felt at every level,’ their report found.

Mr Risha said: ‘The toxic behavior and management failures that I actively complained about were recognised by the wider medical community, namely the Medical Staff Committee.

‘As clinical director of surgery at the time, I took decisive action against an entrenched, dysfunctional system to protect the department and its patients.’

The Medical Staff Committee, which represents hospital doctors in the Isle of Man, has claimed its recent vote of no confidence in the Manx Care leadership led to chief executive Teresa Cope and chairman Wendy Reid announcing their resignations.

Mr Risha told Isle of Man Today it was ‘imperative’ that the context and facts surrounding the service review and his tenure as clinical director of surgery were reported accurately to prevent any ‘defamatory misrepresentation of my professional conduct’.