Health
Private and NHS hospitals still failing to cooperate to catch rogue doctors, report warns
Key Points
Patients are at risk of harm because information is still not being shared between private and NHS hospitals when things go wrong, new research warns.1The researchers said that key recommendations from the inquiry into the rogue breast surgeon Ian Paterson in 20202—including creating a single repository of information about consultants’ practice—have not been implemented, leaving patients vulnerable. Paterson was jailed for 15 years in 2017 after being convicted of 17 counts of wounding with...
Patients are at risk of harm because information is still not being shared between private and NHS hospitals when things go wrong, new research warns.1The researchers said that key recommendations from the inquiry into the rogue breast surgeon Ian Paterson in 20202—including creating a single repository of information about consultants’ practice—have not been implemented, leaving patients vulnerable.Paterson was jailed for 15 years in 2017 after being convicted of 17 counts of wounding with intent and three counts of wounding in his treatment of 10 patients at private hospitals run by Spire Healthcare.3 The Court of Appeal later increased his sentence to 20 years.4The inquiry concluded that England’s healthcare system was “dysfunctional at almost every level” when it came to keeping patients safe and that numerous opportunities to stop Paterson practising were missed over a long period of time.Since the inquiry there have been several similar cases of doctors working across...