Litany of failings allowed consultant to misdiagnose for a decade, inquiry finds

A series of failings by Belfast Health and Social Care Trust allowed a consultant neurologist, Michael Watt, to go on misdiagnosing and wrongly treating patients’ illnesses for a decade, a public inquiry has concluded.1

Watt was at the centre of the largest patient recall in Northern Ireland in 2018, when more than 5000 patients were recalled. A review of his high risk patients found that nearly one in five received a diagnosis described as “not secure.”

The Independent Neurology Inquiry, chaired by Brett Lockhart QC, found that information was locked in “silos” and was never synthesised to the point where a decision maker could view the entire picture. The inquiry’s highly critical report said that one of the …