The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
£37million payout for 750 victims of disgraced surgeon
Compensation: New fund to halt legal actions
Around 750 private patients treated by disgraced breast surgeon Ian Paterson will receive compensation from a new £37million fund.
Spire Healthcare, which runs private hospitals in the West Midlands where Paterson worked, will contribute £27.2 million to the fund. A further £10million will be provided by Paterson’s insurers and the Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust.
Paterson was found guilty in April at Nottingham Crown Court of 17 counts of wounding with intent, and three further wounding charges. He was sentenced to 15 years in jail but this was upped to 20 in August after Court of Appeal judges ruled the sentence was too lenient.
The announcement of the new fund is intended to halt further legal proceedings and account for any new claims made before October 2018. More than 500 of Paterson’s private patients had been due to take their case to the High Court next month.
Simon Gordon, interim chief executive at Spire, said: “A criminal court decided that Ian Paterson must bear responsibility for his actions.
“While nothing diminishes Mr Paterson’s responsibility for his actions, these events took place in our hospitals, and this should not have happened.
“We accept 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.”
During the trial it emerged that Paterson, who treated thousands of patients during his career, exaggerated or invented cancer risks and claimed payments for more expensive procedures.
He also carried out hundreds of unnecessary operations on NHS patients.
“We have apologised to Mr Paterson’s patients”