£37m payouts for victims of surgeon
LEGAL: Around 750 private patients treated by disgraced breast surgeon Ian Paterson will receive compensation from a new £37m fund.
Spire Healthcare, which runs private hospitals where Paterson worked, will contribute £27.2m to the fund. A further £10m will be provided by Paterson’s insurers and an NHS Trust.
AROUND 750 private patients treated by disgraced breast surgeon Ian Paterson will receive compensation from a new £37m fund.
Spire Healthcare, which runs private hospitals in the West Midlands where Paterson worked, will contribute £27.2m to the fund.
A further £10m 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 initially 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 by private patients 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: “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..”
Emma Doughty, a specialist medical negligence lawyer from Slater and Gordon, which represents more than 100 of Paterson’s victims, said: “No financial settlement will ever heal the physical and mental scars inflicted on our clients but they are relieved that they have finally won their battle for justice.
“Even when Paterson was charged and then convicted earlier this year, Spire refused to countenance that they were responsible for his actions, despite his crimes taking place in their hospitals. As a result, his victims have faced a long wait not knowing whether they would be compensated for the pain he caused them.
“We are pleased that Spire has finally agreed to settle these cases and importantly, we hope this settlement will send a message to other private healthcare providers that patient safety must be their priority.”
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.
The NHS has so far paid more than £17 million in compensation and costs for victims.
The Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust was also part of the civil action after accusations it failed to notify Spire of Paterson’s questionable and dangerous practices, discovered years earlier.
No financial settlement will ever heal the physical and mental scars. Specialist lawyer Emma Doughty.