Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Hospital compo snub for butcher surgeon victims
High Court case now listed
HUNDREDS of victims of breast surgeon butcher Ian Paterson are to sue private hospitals who are refusing them compensation.
Traumatised patients of the 59-year-old, who grew up in Bangor, Co Down, have been forced into legal action.
Health chiefs informed the victims – mostly women – that hospitals where the depraved doctor performed botched surgeries are not responsible for his actions.
Cheryl Iommi, 51, had three lumps removed from her breasts which Paterson told her were cancerous. She later learned were just scar tissue from a previous operation.
She told The Mail on Sunday: “I feel like he is getting away with this all over again.
“He escaped justice for years and even now he is in jail I am having to go through the courts to get a penny back.
“The pain goes on and the system seems to be fighting against me.
“We are the victims in all of this and we are just being brushed under the rug. It’s disgraceful.” The Medical Defence Union, which provides professional indemnity against legal claims, has also refused to pay out, claiming a clause in the disgraced surgeon’s policy said he was not covered in the event of a criminal conviction. Glasgow-born Paterson was sentenced to 15 years for carrying out “needless” procedures including mastectothey mies on 10 victims. He was convicted of 17 charges of wounding with intent and unlawful wounding over breast operations he carried out to cash in on patients’ cancer fears.
The father-of-three’s jail term was increased to 20 years on Thursday after Court of Appeal judges ruled the original sentence “unduly lenient”.
Hundreds of his NHS victims have won £18million in compensation from the public purse.
But 700 private patients have received nothing and are now taking demands for a multimillion pound payout from Spire Healthcare, or the MDU, to the High Court in October.