Jailed surgeon’s ‘betrayal’ of patients

 A surgeon jailed for 15 years for carrying out a raft of needless breast operations had betrayed the best interests of his patients, a medical tribunal has heard.

Ian Paterson, 59, was imprisoned in May after he was convicted of wounding with intent and unlawful wounding against 10 patients at two hospitals in the West Midlands between 1997 and 2011. Nigel Grundy, for the General Medical Council, told tribunal members in Manchester yesterday: “Mr Paterson’s conduct is a pattern of betrayal of his patients’ best interests over 14 years, acting, as it seems, out of arrogance.”

The hearing, which continues today, heard Paterson had expressed a wish to be erased from the medical register.