‘A city in trauma’
‘Butcher surgeon’ inquiry chief speaks
THE Bishop leading the inquiry into rogue breast surgeon Ian Paterson has told how he found a city “in trauma” after the appalling damage done to countless patients.
Right Rev Graham James, Bishop of Norwich, is chairing the inquiry team which has so far interviewed more than 150 of Paterson’s victims since February.
Paterson, a former breast surgeon at Solihull Hospital, was jailed in May after being found guilty of 17 counts of wounding with intent and three of unlawful wounding against 10 victims. He was sentenced to 15 years, later increased to 20 in the Court of Appeal.
Now Mr James hopes the Paterson Inquiry will go some way to rebuilding trust in the medical profession with Solihull and Birmingham patients.
“It seemed to me that everybody knows somebody who’s been affected by this,” he told the Birmingham Post.
“I’ve learnt how many families have been affected in the Solihull area. There is a sense of trauma in the wider community.
“Certainly some stories are very distressing to hear. In some cases there were people who had unnecessary surgery, and now themselves are very ill and they did not need to be.
“You’re conscious when you’re with family members of people who have died who think they may have died unnecessarily, that the distress is very great.
“They placed an enormous amount of trust in someone they then lost trust in.
“There’s a sense of not knowing who you would be able to trust in any other way, and it actually reduces your trust in any intuition or person.
“The whole medical system would not work without this trust, and it needs to be restored in some way or another.”
Paterson carried out hundreds of unnecessary operations on patients at Spire-run hospitals in Solihull and Little Aston, with many also undergoing unnecessary chemotherapy.
The ‘butcher’ surgeon also performed countless ‘cleavage sparing’ mastectomies on NHS breast cancer patients, leaving breast tissue for ‘cosmetic reasons’, meaning patients were at a greater risk of their cancer returning.
Of his 1207 NHS mastectomy patients, 675 have now died.
Despite immersing himself in Paterson’s crimes for four months, the bishop admitted we may never know the true reasons behind his hideous behaviour.
“I find it at one level fascinating to think about because it’s so appalling,” he said. “It’s a matter of continuous conjecture among some of those who were most affected by him, but I’m not sure it will yield us much in the way of truth to pursue that a great deal.
“I do recognise that people find it fascinating on a human level, as I do. It’s impossible to imagine why someone would ever do these things.
“But I’m not sure if I knew the motivation I would be much better informed on how to prevent it.”
Former private patients have said they hope that Spire will be compelled to release patient data to the inquiry, and that Paterson’s former colleagues will also give evidence.
But the bishop told the Post the inquiry was undecided whether to hold these sessions in public or private.
While he wants to make the inquiry transparent, corporate witnesses might be more forthcoming if the sessions were in private.
Next month the bishop and his inquiry team will begin taking the evidence of former patients and relatives of the deceased in central Birmingham.
The sessions will run across May, June and July, after which the team will decide a list of corporate witnesses to invite for interview.
The bishop urged any patients who had not been in touch yet to do so as soon as possible.
Former patients or relatives can contact the inquiry by at www.patersoninquiry.org.uk or calling 0207 972 1295.
Everybody knows somebody who’s been affected by this Paterson Inquiry chief Right Rev Graham James