Second shoulder surgeon at Spire Healthcare reportedly suspended
A second shoulder surgeon at Spire Healthcare has been revealed to have been suspended after concerns were raised about his work.
Posted on 17 February 2020
The Guardian has reported that Mike Walsh, AGE, was suspended by Spire Healthcare’s hospital in Leeds after an investigation was launched in April 2018 into his treatment of patients.
It is reported that 50 patients have been recalled for a review of their treatment by Mike Walsh after the notes of 200 patients were examined.
The allegations relate to patients harmed by unnecessary or poor treatment by Mike Walsh between 2012 and 2018. Walsh has now retired.
Last month it was revealed that another Spire Healthcare surgeon, Habib Rahman, has been accused of having performed unnecessary and inappropriate shoulder surgery on 200 patients who have now been recalled for further examination.
Rahman practised at Spire Parkway Hospital in the West Midlands which was also involved in the recall of over 130 patients who were treated by urological surgeon, Manu Nair. He is subject to clinical negligence claims after several men claim that he subjected them to unnecessary and experimental prostate cancer treatments which caused lifelong infertility, incontinence and mental health problems.
Jailed breast surgeon Ian Paterson operated on patients at Parkway Hospital in Solihull and Little Aston which after 2014 became part of Spire Healthcare.
A report into the scandal of Paterson’s unjustified breast operations on hundreds of women exposed “a culture of avoidance and denial” in which the hospitals where he operated displayed a “wilful blindness” to his behaviour despite concerns and complaints.
After the recall of Habib Rahman’s patients was revealed last month, Leigh Day solicitors called for a full-scale review into hospitals run by Spire Healthcare.
Now clinical negligence solicitor Stephen Jones has repeated the call, saying:
“The private healthcare industry needs to wake up and identify potential dangers to patients in their hospitals much sooner.
“The Paterson Inquiry drew attention to the dangers of ‘practising privileges’ of clinicians in private hospitals. This latest recall of patients reveals yet again the safeguarding risks of medical practice in these hospitals and the very urgent requirement for more stringent regulation.”