Private hospitals must publish outcome data to prevent another Ian Paterson, warn surgeons

Private hospitals should get better at sharing information with the NHS about consultants’ performance, as well as routinely publishing patient safety and clinical audit data, the Royal College of Surgeons has said.

In a position statement the college calls for changes that it says are required to prevent another case like that of the rogue breast surgeon Ian Paterson, who mutilated patients with unnecessary operations.12

Derek Alderson, president of the Royal College of Surgeons, said that, although Paterson was a rogue individual, the healthcare sector needed to do …