Pre-surgery letters and a pre-operation ‘cooling off’ period are part of a raft of measures designed to prevent rogue surgeons from committing serious malpractice, following the Paterson scandal.
Unveiling the Government’s response to the inquiry into how shamed surgeon Ian Paterson was able to put hundreds of women through unnecessary operations, health minister Nadine Dorries told Parliament that she wants to see a short period introduced into the process of patients giving consent for surgical procedures, to allow them time to reflect on their diagnosis and treatment options.
She also wants it to become standard practice that consultants in both the NHS and the independent sector should write to patients, outlining their condition and treatment, in simple language, and copy this letter to the patient’s GP, rather than writing to the GP and sending a copy to the patient.
Dorries has also recommended that CQC should as a matter of urgency carry out investigations to ensure that all hospital providers are complying effectively with up-to-date national guidance on multidisciplinary team meetings, including in breast cancer care, to ensure that patients are not at risk of harm due to non-compliance.
AXA has welcomed the announcement but has called for a fuller, more detailed, response to the inquiry into the Paterson affair to be published.
Paterson was jailed for 20 years in 2017 for 13 counts of wounding with intent and three of wounding.
The Government has also recommended that the University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust board should check that all patients of Paterson have been recalled, and to communicate with any who have not been seen.
University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (UHB) contacted 4,394 patients between May and August 2020. This has given rise to 355 enquiries.
The Government has also called for Spire Healthcare, the private hospital group where procedures took place, to check that all patients of Paterson have been recalled and given an ongoing treatment plan.
The Government has re-stated its commitment to legislative action to improve standards of patient safety and care in the NHS and independent sector by establishing a Patient Safety Commissioner for England able to exercise their powers in both the NHS and the independent sector, and in its recently published White Paper setting out legislative proposals for the Health and Care Bill, announcing its intention to extend the remit of the Health Service Safety Investigation Branch to include both the NHS and independent sector.
Fergus Craig, director for AXA Health, said: “While we welcome this initial response to the Paterson Inquiry, for the reassurance of patients, we urge the Government to publish a full response to its recommendations as soon as possible.
“Transparency and accountability are, of course, essential for providing good standards of patient safety and care, and we need to see more evidence of system-wide learnings from providers’ mistakes.
“But however helpful this is for identifying concerns, of greater importance is having the will to act on them. We need to promote a change of culture in healthcare to one that prioritises learning – not blame. A culture of ‘speak up, not cover up’.
“Everyone working in healthcare should know and be confident that they won’t be punished for raising concerns about patient safety.”