Fears for millions of NHS patients over drug 'fraud'

Millions of NHS patients may be at risk after being treated with drugs based on "fraudulent research" by a world-renowned anaesthetist.

Joachim Boldt, 57, is at the centre of a criminal investigation after being accused of forging up to 90 influential studies on fluid drugs called colloids, used to boost blood volume in patients having surgery.

He has now been stripped of his professorship and sacked from a German hospital. Over a decade he has published papers advocating colloids, contradicting other studies highlighting their risks which include kidney or heart failure and severe loss of blood - all of which could lead to death in surgery.

Four key colloid studies, on which guidelines for British anaesthetists are based, are now to be formally retracted. The Consensus Guidelines on Intravenous Fluid Therapy, published by six medical groups including the Association of Surgeons and the Intensive Care Society, were withdrawn last night.

Professor John MacFie, president of the Association of Surgeons, said some British patients could have been put in danger.

He said: "We have withdrawn the guidelines from our website and we will need to rewrite the article. The profession I represent does not want to be to be associated with potentially fraudulent research."

Besides forgery, allegations against Mr Boldt include testing drugs on patients without consent and claiming payments for surgery he never performed.