Patients of the private healthcare provider trust have been contacted after a trawl of IT systems and told their care will be investigated.
Ian Paterson was a consultant breast surgeon in the West Midlands, working in both NHS and private practice at Heartlands Hospital, Solihull Hospital, Good Hope Hospital, Spire Hospital Parkway and Spire Hospital Little Aston.
From 1993 until he was suspended in 2011, Mr Paterson treated thousands of patients in both the NHS and private sector, carrying out needless breast surgeries and using unapproved techniques for breast cancer. It has subsequently come to light that Mr Paterson’s malpractice extended to general surgical procedures as well as breast surgery.
Mr Paterson is serving a 20-year prison sentence for 17 counts of wounding with intent and around 750 patients have already received compensation for injuries caused by him.
5,500 patients in the private sector have had their operations checked, but the details of the additional 1,500 patients were discovered on an old IT system used between 1993 and the early 2000s.
The new cohort of patients is now being contacted by Spire Healthcare and will be offered a review of the treatment they received by Paterson.
Shoosmiths clinical negligence partner, Kashmir Uppal, has helped hundreds of former patients of Paterson to bring claims.
Kashmir said: “It is very distressing to hear that these 1,500 patients have been missed from previous recalls. It is now years since Paterson was jailed, yet now some people will be made aware for the first time that there could have been serious issues in their care during their time at Spire.”
“The fact that Paterson was allowed to practice over such a long timescale highlights clear errors in clinical governance. People affected by this newest recall will be shocked and worried and we urge them to reach out to our specialist team here at Shoosmiths for free and confidential advice on the next steps.”
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