Hundreds of private hospital patients in Britain who were operated on by surgeon Ian Paterson have yet to be traced, as victims mark a year since an independent inquiry into the scandal. According to a report in The Independent, Paterson was jailed for 20 years in 2017 after being found guilty of wounding with intent after carrying out unnecessary surgery on thousands of women over 14 years.
Spire Healthcare wrote to 5,500 former patients of Paterson last year as part of a recall recommended by the inquiry led by the former Bishop of Norwich, the Right Reverend Graham James. Around 11,000 patients may need to be reviewed.
Around 6,500 patients who were seen by Paterson between 1993 and 2011 have been contacted. NHS hospitals in the midlands have also carried out a separate recall of the surgeon’s NHS patients. In total around 11,000 patients may need to be reviewed.
The inquiry, which reported on 4 February last year, revealed the surgeon was “hiding in plain sight” for years and allowed to harm hundreds of women because of a healthcare system that was “dysfunctional at almost every level”.
Since the inquiry and during the coronavirus pandemic private hospitals have been paid more than £1.5bn to support the NHS and stand to make millions more in coming years as the NHS tries to tackle the backlog in surgery caused by the virus.
Paterson carried out unapproved surgery known as “cleavage-sparing” mastectomies which left behind breast tissue in some cancer patients. A year on from the damning report, which called for major changes to improve the safety of patients in private hospitals, the government has yet to respond to any of its recommendations.
Linda Millband, lead for clinical negligence at Thompsons Solicitors, who led court action against Paterson on behalf of 650 of his patients, said: “Paterson got away with so much for so long because of the UK’s private healthcare system’s inadequate audit process and failure to appraise surgeons at hospitals where they are contracted, rather than employed. Without fundamental reforms, suggested by an independent inquiry, we face the very real prospect of history repeating itself.”
The Patient Safety Minister Nadine Dorries has said the government would respond to the inquiry in coming weeks.
[link url="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/ian-paterson-breast-surgeon-inquiry-private-hospitals-spire-b1797204.html"]Full report in The Independent (Open access)[/link]