Ian Paterson left hundreds of patients scarred of at danger following unnecessary breast operations. His private patients will share £37million in compensation
A High Court judge has approved a huge £37million compensation package for the victims of disgraced breast surgeon Ian Paterson.
Paterson, from Altrincham, Greater Manchester, carried out unnecessary and dangerous breast operations on hundreds of women for at least seven years before he was finally stopped.
High Court judge Mrs Justice Whipple today approved a settlement for around 750 of Paterson’s private patients.
Spire Healthcare, which runs private hospitals in the West Midlands where Paterson worked, will contribute £27.2 million to the total.
A further £10 million is to be provided by Paterson’s insurers and his former employers, the Heart of England NHS Trust.
The judge expressed her ‘heartfelt ‘ sympathy to those whose trust she said was ‘betrayed’ by Paterson.
After the ruling, lawyer Linda Millband, of Thompsons Solicitors, which represents more than 500 patients, said: ‘We now have court approval of a settlement that is long overdue.
‘At long last our clients will be financially compensated after years of deliberate and protracted stalling by Spire.’
Rachel Butler, one of Paterson’s victims, said: ‘It is a relief that we will now receive some form of compensation for the hell we’ve been through.’
She said: ‘We now need to see a complete change in the private healthcare sector to make sure no-one ever has to wait this long for justice again.’
Many of the surgeon’s victims attended his trial earlier this year. Some have branded him a ‘psychopath’ with a ‘God complex’ over his years of dangerous and unnecessary operations
Paterson was convicted of 17 counts of wounding with intent and three counts of unlawful wounding against 10 private patients earlier this year.
The 59-year-old was originally sentenced to 15 years in May, but that ‘lenient’ jail term was upped to 20 years by Court of Appeal judges in August.
The NHS has already paid out around £10million in compensation to patients Paterson treated at its hospitals – but the legal wrangle over damages for private patients had continued.
The settlement agreed today however brings those proceedings to an end.
Paterson left his victims scarred and disfigured. His trial heard from nine women and one man who were treated in the private sector at Little Aston and Parkway Hospitals in the West Midlands, between 1997 and 2011.
Paterson left one woman looking like she’d been in a ‘car crash’ after undergoing an mastectomy she didn’t need, his trial heard
Paterson treated the patients involved in today’s settlement through two private Spire hospitals. Pictured: Little Aston private Hospital
Other victims included a mother who agreed to two unnecessary operations leaving her unable to breastfeed.
Another woman ended up with ‘significant deformity in her cleavage area’ after two needless operations on her left breast.
One victim said after his trial that she had been left ‘mutilated’ by a ‘money making machine’.
Prosecutors in the criminal trial said it was unclear whether Paterson was motivated by the payments he could receive from the private operations, or whether he just enjoyed having power over people’s lives.