Victims of a surgeon who operated in Sutton Coldfield and was found to have carried out hundreds of unnecessary operations have been told they will get a share of a new £37 million compensation fund.
Disgraced breast surgeon Ian Paterson was put behind bars in May after he was found guilty of wounding with intent by ‘playing God’ and operating on both female and male breast cancer victims when there was no need to do so.
Spire Healthcare, which runs Little Aston Hospital, as well as Parkway in Solihull, confirmed it will contribute £27.2 million to the Ian Paterson (Liability to Private Patients) Compensation Fund, which will be used to settle claims by around 750 patients – making up ‘all current and known claims’ treated by the rogue surgeon. Claims against the fund must be brought by October 30, 2018.
Co-defendants include Heart of England Foundation Trust where Dr Paterson worked as a surgeon at both Sutton's Good Hope Hospital and at its Solihull site.
Spire said: "What Ian Paterson did, in both his NHS Trust and in the private sector, was unprecedented in terms of scale and impact. Spire Healthcare is determined to learn the lessons from these events to ensure they can never happen again.
"In 2013, Spire Healthcare commissioned an independent report by Verita and has fully implemented the recommendations of that report, significantly strengthening its clinical governance processes.
"Changes since the report include the introduction of a new "ward-to-board" governance process across Spire Healthcare, the establishment of a Board committee to oversee clinical governance and safety, enhanced monitoring of consultant activity, the review of all cancer patients by a Multi-Disciplinary Team of clinicians, strengthened whistleblowing processes and improved communication and collaboration with the NHS."
It added that the money would be paid from its cash reserves.
Paterson fought 20 charges of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm to 10 patients at the Spire hospitals between 1997 and 2011.
But was convicted of all counts in April, following a 10-week trial at Nottingham Crown Court. He was jailed for 15 years in May, but his sentence was increased to 20 years by appeal court judges in August, following a referral by the Solicitor General, Robert Buckland MP.
Simon Gordon, Spire Healthcare’s interim chief executive officer, said: “Earlier this year a criminal court decided that Ian Paterson must bear responsibility for his actions, finding him guilty of assaulting a number of his patients.
“He behaved with clear criminal intent and abused the trust of those who looked to him for his care and relied upon his expertise.
“However, whilst nothing diminishes Mr Paterson’s responsibility for his actions, these events took place in our hospitals, and this should not have happened.
“We accept that better clinical governance in the private hospitals where Mr Paterson practised, as well as in his NHS Trust, might have led to action being taken sooner, and it is right that we have made a material contribution to the settlement announced today.
“We have apologised unreservedly to Mr Paterson’s patients for their suffering and distress and we would like to repeat that apology. As soon as the criminal trial ended we were able to start liaising with claimants’ lawyers to broker a settlement involving all defendants. This has resulted in the agreement announced today.”
The multi-million pound fund, which is subject to High Court approval, will be managed by solicitors acting on behalf of the claimants.
Linda Millband, national lead lawyer for clinical negligence at Thompsons Solicitors, which has been representing more than 500 of Paterson’s patients, said: “We are delighted for our clients that after five years of hard work, and despite deliberate and protracted stalling by Spire, they eventually came to the negotiating table and agreed to pay their share of the compensation due to the hundreds of Paterson victims.
“No amount of money can ever take back the harm caused by Paterson’s appalling, calculated negligence, but it will go some way towards helping our clients to rebuild their lives and in some cases, pay for rehabilitation and corrective surgery in the future.”
