Around 1,500 more patients of convicted breast surgeon Ian Paterson will be recalled so their treatment can be investigated. Spire Healthcare, which runs private hospitals, said the patients were being called back after a trawl of legacy IT systems.
Paterson was jailed for 20 years in 2017 for 17 counts of wounding people with intent. He subjected more than 1,000 patients to unnecessary and damaging operations over 14 years, with a 2020 independent inquiry ruling he was free to perform harmful surgery in NHS and private hospitals because of “a culture of avoidance and denial” in a “dysfunctional” healthcare system where there was “wilful blindness” to his behaviour.
The inquiry said all 11,000 patients Paterson treated should be recalled for review. Between 1997 and 2011, Paterson is known to have treated thousands of patients at Spire Parkway hospital and Spire Little Aston hospital in the West Midlands. This was alongside his work at NHS hospitals run by the Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust.
