Paterson’s employers preferred good news to true news after complaints, report said

COMPLAINTS about Ian Paterson had been made for years but managers at the NHS trust that employed him “preferred good news to true news”, a 2013 report said.

Bosses at Heart of England NHS Trust failed hundreds of breast cancer patients, the investigation by lawyer

Sir Ian Kennedy found.

Paterson, who has been suspended by the General Medical Council, was allowed to carry on operating on women for several years despite serious concerns raised about him by other staff, the report said.

Sir Ian published his findings in December 2013 – more than three years before Paterson stood trial at Nottingham Crown Court and was convicted of wounding 10 patients treated privately at the Spire Little

Aston and Parkway hospitals in the West Midlands between 1997 and 2011.

The jury was not told of

Sir Ian’s report.

Paterson carried out “cleavage-sparing” mastectomies, with the review into his work at the Heart of England NHS Trust finding that a number of women were exposed to the risk of the cancer returning.

The report said Paterson carried out inadequate partial mastectomies on many women, which he defended by saying he had left behind “fatty tissue” to give the women a more “satisfying aesthetic appearance”.

The hospital trust offered an unreserved apology to all patients and their relatives following the report’s publication.

Sir Ian’s review was heavily critical of senior figures at the trust, saying they chose to ignore Paterson’s failings or took inadequate action.

Even when the trust did decide to take decisive action years later, it recalled only 12 women for further investigation – an approach that was “hopelessly flawed”.

A full recall of all patients was announced only when new managers took up posts at the trust in 2010.

Paterson had been suspended from another hospital trust, in Sutton Coldfield, when he started working for Heart of England in March 1998.