Reacting to today’s publication of the Report of the Independent Inquiry into issues raised by the case of convicted breast surgeon Ian Paterson, Professor Michael Griffin OBE, President of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh said:
“We are grateful to The Rt Revd Graham James for conducting this important review and for highlighting the urgent need for change.
“As the report states, we must urgently move away from “a culture of avoidance and denial” and put in place robust mechanisms that prevent the reported ‘wilful blindness’ from happening again.
“Concerns about Paterson were first raised in 2003 and despite numerous opportunities to stop him, his “behaviour and aberrant clinical practice was excused or even favoured”.
“Therefore, we agree that this is more than simply a single rogue clinician, revealing as it does serious questions about how concerns over patient safety are handled. There is a clear need to improve clinical governance and regulation in the private healthcare sector and NHS Trusts also need to look at how they handle complaints.
“We wholeheartedly endorse all the recommendations made and look forward to their early implementation.”