Alleged victims of a former, now late Derby doctor express hope for full scrutiny as only “justice”

Dr Daniel Hay, a former University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Foundation Trust obstetrician and gynaecologist. Image from Daniel Hay.

The alleged victims of a former Derby doctor say their only hope of “justice” lies with full scrutiny of his decades of work, following his death.

Daniel Hay, aged 61, from near Alfreton, died earlier this month in hospital of natural causes, while at the centre of a three-year criminal investigation into his medical practices involving dozens of women.

An email sent to affected patients by Derbyshire Police, seen by the Local Democracy Reporting Service, was sent on April 13th, saying the force was made aware of Mr Hay’s death on April 9th, with a public statement issued on April 15th.

Mr Hay was interviewed under caution on numerous occasions from late March 2025, but was never charged with a crime.

Criminal investigations into six out of 36 cases were dropped by Derbyshire Police in January this year, due to a lack of evidence.

In September last year, Mr Hay’s previous employer, the University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Foundation Trust (UHDB), released a report into his conduct involving 383 cases from 2015 to 2018, three years after it had been completed.

The report found “major” concerns of harm to 48 women and “some” concerns of harm to 68 women, although it did not provide a definition of “concerns of harm”.

The report recommended that the investigation is expanded to between 2012 and 2015, focusing on major and intermediate gynaecology surgery cases.

A hospital trust spokesperson has confirmed an expansion of its review into Mr Hay to include 2012-2015 only, which started last autumn.

Patients treated by Mr Hay, speaking to the LDRS, have long detailed alleged misconduct stretching back to the early 2000s, including in Nottinghamshire and Chesterfield, far beyond the previous scope of NHS investigations.

Police have confirmed there was no date limit to its investigations but that they were restricted to purely focus on Mr Hay, with no other person interviewed or within scope.

Mr Hay worked across the “mid-Trent” area from 1996-2001 at Queen’s Medical Centre and City Hospital in Nottingham, King’s Mill Hospital in Mansfield, what was Derby City General Hospital and Chesterfield Royal Hospital.

From 2001 to 2005, he worked at Chesterfield Royal and from 2006 until 2020 at Royal Derby Hospital, along with teaching roles at the University of Nottingham and Sheffield Medical School.

Pauline Hill, who now lives in Leicestershire, was treated by Mr Hay in 2001, while he was working at Chesterfield Royal Hospital, said: “I keep fighting for older cases to be taken into consideration, but it has still been ignored.

“The problem is, will the real number ever be known? As many old cases will include many that have died.

“Some are too fearful of reigniting old experiences and in this age range a lot of women won’t speak of such things as it is far too embarrassing for them.

“Looking back, it was treatment not like any other in the NHS as would not have been allowed, not even then.”

“The GMC were aware of Hay in 2003. Whilst Hay is now gone, that shouldn’t mean we don’t get justice so we can move on.”

Mrs Hill had her request for a GMC investigation rejected in 2005 and a request for a review was also rejected in 2007.

Last October’s NHS report into Mr Hay referenced this case, saying: “There is some evidence that as soon as he arrived in post (at Royal Derby, in 2006), he was concerned about a GMC investigation over a patient’s treatment from his previous position at Chesterfield Hospital.”

Steph Blood, from Nottingham, had an abdominal hysterectomy performed by Mr Hay at QMC in 2001, leading to a £33,000 compensation payout from the Nottingham hospitals trust after it admitted “breach of duty”.

A further former patient, living in Derbyshire, who did not wish to be named, had a hysterectomy performed by Mr Hay in 2007 at Royal Derby Hospital.

She said: “I thought I was going to die. I called the Vicar to give communion.

“You don’t want anyone to suffer but I wanted him to be punished for what he did and to reflect on what he has done wrong to us all.

“We are all still suffering the effects of what he has done to us. He has got away with it. 

“You hope you are going to get justice and I don’t think we have in this case and we won’t until the whole case is opened up.

“The hospital trust needs to just say ‘he went rogue for at least 10 years’, if that’s what it is.

“The trust and all the other trusts need to be honest about what they knew. They all need to be honest. The truth rarely comes out, but they all need to learn from it.

“If his record keeping was so bad that all they can say is ‘we will never know how many people were harmed’, then just say it.”

Melissa Newbold, aged 40, from Derby, had a womb ablation (involving the lining of the uterus) followed by a hysterectomy performed by Mr Hay from 2013 to 2014.

She said: “It was a bit of a shock. I do feel sad about it, I don’t want anybody to die, but we are also now back to being in limbo.”

Hannah Green, 36, from Littleover, had laparoscopies performed by Mr Hay in 2016 and 2017, without her consent.

Her case was one of the six dropped by the police in January, which she claims was linked to the lack of medical experts available to assess and provide evidence to support a criminal charge.

She said she and the other five women who had their cases dropped have appealed that decision.

Ms Green said: “I was quite flabbergasted when I found out. It came as quite a shock.

“Daniel Hay ought to have died in prison, but there is still a job to do to investigate everybody else.

“We all still have to live with what he did to us, we live with it every day, we are suffering and will do for the rest of our lives.

“They had years to investigate, but they couldn’t find an expert and now justice will die with him.

“There is now just civil accountability.

“None of us know what actually happened to us, it would take more surgeries to find that out.

“People in that position get the benefit of the doubt and we are just accusers now.

“The system allowed him to do this. Something should have changed and should have done something sooner, people knew about him years ago, but instead he was allowed to stay in his job for another five or 10 years with no due diligence.

“The police need to look into how this was allowed to happen.”

A Chesterfield Royal Hospital spokesperson said: “Daniel Hay worked at Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHS Foundation Trust between 1996 and 2005, and we take any concerns about patient safety extremely seriously. 

“Matters relating to wider investigations into an individual clinician’s practice are led by the appropriate national bodies, and the trust will continue to cooperate fully with any external reviews or enquiries.”

Dr Gis Robinson, executive chief medical officer at UHDB, said: “We reiterate our unreserved apologies to the women who received care that fell below the standards they should have been able to rely on.  

“The published independent reports were wide‑ranging, involving staff as well as reviews of clinical records to build a full understanding of what happened and where care fell short. 

“We made changes to the way the organisation works on the back of the findings, including how consent is agreed and recorded, how clinical work is overseen, and how women are reviewed after procedures. 

“A further review – called ‘phase 2’ – is already underway of a defined group of women who underwent major surgery by Mr Hay before 2015, and our focus remains on supporting those affected, being open and transparent, and ensuring any further learning is acted upon.”

Derbyshire Police said it is not the case that the Lucy Letby case, or any other case, has had an impact on available experts for the Daniel Hay investigation, but acknowledged there are limited numbers of gynaecological medical experts that can undertake criminal matters.

The force spokesperson said: “We understand that Daniel Hay’s death will have had a significant impact on all of those involved in this investigation.

“The investigation into these allegations is complex, involving large amounts of material and independent specialist medical professionals being consulted.

“While this has meant that enquiries have taken a significant length of time it is important that these enquiries are undertaken in a diligent and comprehensive way.

“Following this latest development a review is being undertaken into what the next steps are for the investigation, and we will continue to keep those involved updated.”

The Nottingham University Hospital NHS Trust was approached for comment but has not responded as of this article’s publication.