Breast surgeon Ian Paterson case: ‘Hundreds’ of other victims

Hundreds more patients are expected to seek compensation after a breast surgeon was convicted of carrying out needless operations.

Ian Paterson, 59, was found guilty of 17 counts of wounding with intent, relating to nine women and one man in the West Midlands. A previous investigation queried how he could “get away with what he was doing” in the NHS for so long.Paterson, of Altrincham, Greater Manchester, was also found guilty of three counts of unlawful wounding at Nottingham Crown Court. The surgeon, who treated thousands of patients during his career, exaggerated or invented cancer risks, in some cases claiming payments for more expensive procedures than those required, the court was told.

The seven-week trial heard the accounts of ten victims – representing a sample of those Paterson treated – operated on between 1997 and 2011 at the privately-run Little Aston and Parkway hospitals in the West Midlands.

Jurors were not told Paterson carried out hundreds of unnecessary operations on NHS patients, with a hospital trust paying out £17.8m in damages and legal costs. He was granted bail and is due to be sentenced in May.

Police said some of his victims believed Paterson wanted to “play God” with their lives and it is believed the surgeon may also have been driven by financial gain.

As a result of his work, he owned a luxury home in Birmingham’s Edgbaston area, numerous properties in Cardiff and Manchester and a holiday home in the US.

Paterson invented what he called a “cleavage-sparing mastectomy” – leaving breast tissue behind to achieve a better cosmetic effect – and performed it on many of his patients. By doing so, he left them in great danger of developing secondary cancer, jurors heard during the trial.

Cases are not only against Mr Paterson but also against Spire Hospitals and the Heart of England Foundation Trust – on the basis that neither of the hospital authorities took the necessary steps to protect our victims and clients.

An independent report in 2013, by lawyer Sir Ian Kennedy, found concerns about Paterson dated back to 2003 but these were not dealt with for four years.

In 1996, Paterson was suspended by a previous employer, but two years later he was appointed to the Heart of England NHS Trust. In 2004, an internal report on his conduct made recommendations that were not acted upon, and he continued to operate until mid-2011, the Kennedy report said. He was eventually excluded by the trust and 642 patients were recalled. In 2012 he was suspended by the regulator the General Medical Council.

Julie Crossley, a medical negligence lawyer at Ashtons Legal, commented: “More and more victims of Mr Paterson have emerged since the court case. It is incredulous that this surgeon was allowed to continue to treat patients given the concerns raised in the past. The numbers of affected patients keeps rising as will the cost of compensation. There does not appear to be any monitoring system in place to ensure that surgeons are carrying out appropriate and reasonable surgery. Had there been, the distress and damage would have been avoided. Ashtons Legal has handled claims for some of Paterson’s former patients.”