Information for patients of Mr Ian Paterson

Having contacted 5,500 patients of Ian Paterson over the past two years to check that their care has been reviewed, Spire Healthcare is contacting a further group of Paterson patients.

In 2020, Spire committed to contacting all known patients of Paterson to check their care had been reviewed, following the recommendations of the Independent Inquiry into Paterson.

After having contacted all 5,500 identifiable patients of Paterson in late 2020, Spire undertook a further step to be certain that there were no outstanding patients who might require support, dating back to the earliest years of his practice.

To do this, it revisited historic legacy IT systems in use between 1993 and the early 2000s, containing information about patients from over 20 years ago which had been thought to be inaccessible.

However, following a further complex analysis of these legacy systems, Spire was able to identify the details of around 1,500 patients. These patients will now be contacted by Spire Healthcare and where appropriate, offered a review of the treatment they received by Paterson over 20 years ago and support.

Dr Cathy Cale, Spire Healthcare’s Group Medical Director, said:

“Over the past couple of years, we’ve been absolutely committed to identifying, tracking down and contacting all living patients of Ian Paterson regardless of when they were treated. This has entailed going back over legacy computer systems which were in place from the beginning of Ian Paterson’s practice in 1993 until the early 2000s, and includes data which were thought to be previously inaccessible.

“Understandably, it’s not been easy to navigate our way around some of these data which are more than 20 years old. But, now that we have been able to extract new patient information from these historic IT systems, we will write to those patients in the next few weeks to offer them any support they need.

“We are very sorry for the significant distress and harm suffered by patients who were treated by Ian Paterson. We accepted the recommendations of the Independent Inquiry into Paterson in 2020 and are fully committed to implementing them.

“Although we cannot put right the wrongs of the past, we are determined to do everything we can to support the victims of Ian Paterson including those he treated before Spire was in existence. That is why we are taking this action today.”

Any patient who is concerned about treatment they received with Ian Paterson can call Spire Healthcare’s freephone helpline on 0800 085 8130 or email us at spirehealthcarehelplineianpaterson@spirehealthcare.com.