Birmingham's Disgraced Surgeon Faces New Reckoning — inquests open for 62 patients
Plus, meet our new reporter!
Dear Patchers — It’s an exciting Monday at Dispatch HQ. Our new full-time reporter Samuel McIlhagga has officially joined the team! Samuel brings brilliant experience as a freelance writer for places like the Financial Times, UnHerd and Jacobin and he’s already hard at work, digging to find you the most interesting stories. If you have a tip-off for him (or just want to say hi) make sure to get in touch at: sam@birminghamdispatch.co.uk
Today’s Big Story is about one of the largest inquests ever held in the UK, which begins today at Birmingham and Solihull coroner’s court. It concerns Ian Paterson, the surgeon whose botched operations in the late 90s and 2000s left hundreds of patients disfigured. Paterson is already serving a 20-year prison sentence, but the latest inquests will examine the deaths of 62 of his former patients to determine whether Paterson can be held accountable.
Elsewhere in today’s briefing, a new appointment for the chief exec of the WMCA raises some eyebrows, and innovative restaurant Albatross Death Cult gets the approval of one of the country’s leading food critics. Plus, we round up the best things to do over the next few days, including plenty of Birmingham Comedy Festival gigs.
Catch up and coming up
At the weekend, we went inside the meltdown at West Midlands Fire Service following a ‘mutiny’ by interim CEO Oliver Lee who recently denounced the organisation on LinkedIn. “This great article is an example of why I subscribe. Important local news reported in depth. Thank you,” said one reader in the comments.
This week, engineer, writer and expert on all thing railways, Gareth Dennis, takes a deep dive into if and how HS2 will benefit Birmingham. Expect that in your inbox on Wednesday, closely followed on Thursday by Alex Taylor’s peek into the wild world of a very popular Walsall sex club. At the weekend, Kate tries to find out who makes the decisions about what buildings get built in Birmingham.
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Groundhog day
☂️Tuesday: Scattered showers and a cloudy evening. Max 16°C.
☁️Wednesday: Overcast. Rain joining us for lunch. Max 15°C.
☁️Thursday: Overcast with showers making a late-morning appearance. Max 13°C.
☔Friday: It’s Groundhog Day — overcast + showers. Max 11°C.
🌤️Weekend: The sun returns! Along with a gentle breeze. Max 11°C.
We get our weather from the Met Office.
Big story: Birmingham's Disgraced Surgeon Faces New Reckoning — inquests open for 62 patients
Top line: Today, one of the largest inquests in UK history began at Birmingham and Solihull coroner’s court. Over the next 18 months, the deaths of 62 patients of disgraced breast surgeon Ian Paterson will be re-examined to determine whether Patterson can be held accountable due to negligence.
Context: Paterson’s case has made him one of the most notorious criminals in Birmingham's history. He worked at hospitals in Birmingham and Solihull in the 90s and 00s where he carried out unnecessary operations that left hundreds of his patients disfigured. In 2017, he was convicted of 17 counts of wounding with intent, involving nine women and one man, and sentenced to 20 years in jail.
‘They knew he was trouble’: Paterson worked for several different hospitals, treating both NHS and private patients, between 1994 and 2011. In 1996, Good Hope Hospital in Solihull temporarily suspended him for exposing a patient to a significant risk of harm during surgery. Despite knowing this, the Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust — now the University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust — hired him as a consultant two years later. At the same time, he was treating patients at Spire Parkway Hospital and Spire Little Aston Hospital.
When Sir Ian Kennedy was writing his report into Paterson in 2013, a senior radiologist at the trust said: “His reputation was well-known as being difficult and having open rows with a colleague at Good Hope...It’s always a surprise to us why they took him on when they knew he was trouble.”
Concerns raised: From 2003, Paterson’s colleagues were raising serious concerns that he was not removing enough breast tissue during lumpectomies and mastectomies, which increased the risk of cancer returning in patients. Surgeon Dr Martin Lee, who observed Paterson during 2008, noted the speed with which he worked. He told Kennedy: “He would breeze into the theatre, a sort of constant impatience with things and just try and get on as quickly as possible and that is something I have not seen very often.”
Nine years later: Still, it took nine years for Paterson to be suspended by the General Medical Council, following four investigations. An independent inquiry found he had invented or exaggerated cancer risks and to have carried out hundreds of unnecessary operations on more than 1,000 patients. Many have taken out civil claims against the trust.
The loner surgeon: Paterson’s reputation bore out in his time at Heart of England: several staff members described him as arrogant and a bully, and two surgeons even left after altercations with him. One colleague who had also trained with Paterson, said: “Because of his personality he tended to be isolated and he quite liked that, so people would avoid him, go around him and not deal with him, so he never got questioned or hauled up.” That ability to go unnoticed is one reason his ex-colleagues think Paterson might have gotten away with his crimes for so long.
Rejection all round: Paterson isn’t getting away with much today, however. Not only has health secretary Wes Streeting stripped the former-surgeon of his £1m public sector pension, but judge Richard Foster rejected an application from Paterson for public funds to pay for lawyers.
Why the new inquests? A team of doctors reviewed hundreds of medical records to identify patients they believed might have “died an unnatural death as a result of Ian Paterson’s actions”.
Who is affected? The names of all 62 patients can be found here. They include Janice Prescott, who died in 2005 at the age of 49, despite being told by Paterson that her breast cancer would not return after he performed her double mastectomy. Speaking after a hearing in 2023, her husband explained that the family had chosen to go private, because they had insurance and wanted her to get the best possible treatment. He said: "Ian Paterson's attitude always was that he was the best of the best. I thought that she was getting the best possible care.”
The first of the inquests concerns patient Melanie Chalklen and will take place on 16 and 27 October.
Photo of the week
Brian Homer took this photograph at the 1978 WELD Carnival in Handsworth, a community event organised by two primary school teachers during a time when the area was undergoing regeneration. In his photozine Saltley 1978, Homer writes: “The images give a flavour of the project and its rather anarchic (in a good way) approach, where art was used to give young people a vision of the possibilities beyond the confines of the inner city.”
Brum in brief
🧯 Never a dull moment at the West Midlands Fire Service these days. According to Jane Haynes at Birmingham Live, interim CEO Oliver Lee has now been suspended, amid the news that the Fire Authority is set to issue a legal notice against him next week. As readers of our weekend read — which features lots of exclusive details — will be all too aware, Lee has been waging a very public war against senior figures at WMFS, with a series of LinkedIn posts lambasting the incumbent leadership. An agenda published today, ahead of a meeting of the authority’s board next Monday, shows a ‘Section 5’ report — a notice issued by an organisation when it is believed to have broken the law — concerning the ‘interim CEO’ and another the chief finance officer will be discussed. A source told The Dispatch that the report likely concerns Lee’s decision to sack and replace the former chief finance officer. Do you know more about this? Get in touch with us on editor@birminghamdispatch.co.uk
🕯 Today, diverse interfaith communities will gather in the city centre to remember the lives lost in Gaza over the last year. The candle-lit peace vigil will be held by Muslim leaders, Jewish rabbis, and Christian representatives; however, everyone is welcome. The names of some of the thousands of civilians, health workers and journalists who have been killed because of the conflict will be read, followed by a minute’s silence and the reflections of invited speakers.
🎭 Andy Street, Former Mayor of the West Midlands, has swapped politics for plays, in his appointment as chair of Birmingham Repertory Theatre. Street served as mayor from 2017 to 2024, before losing out to Richard Parker. Despite its strong local reputation, he aims to take the Rep up to the next stage, “we could be doing much more nationally and perhaps indeed internationally,” Street says. The Rep’s chief executive, Rachael Thomas, has praised Street’s commitment to Birmingham, as the theatre searches for a new artistic director. Street will assume his position on 1 November and “cannot wait to officially get started.”
🚂 Laura Shoaf, the chief executive of the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA), has been appointed to chair the new body overseeing UK rail services, Great British Railways. Shoaf will lead efforts to bring railways into public ownership, simplify ticketing and improving reliability. The announcement has raised eyebrows in Andy Street’s circle, who are still smarting from his successor Richard Parker’s criticisms that the authority has been left in bad shape by the former mayor. If the chief exec can take on a second major role, things can’t be so bad, sources suggest. Either way, it sounds like it's full steam ahead for Shoaf.
Home of the week
Modernism meets history in this two-bed flat across the way from the Cadbury’s factory. It’s available for £240,000.
Media picks
📰 This Guardian review of Albatross Death Cult will have you hooked from the start. It’s an experimental, seafood-orientated restaurant that blends fine dining in a relaxed, and funky setting. Read about the inventive dishes and bold ambiance in one of the UK's top seafood spots. And once you’ve done that, read our own piece by Ophira, who visited the restaurant in July: “I have been suspiciously positioned at the very end of the long, industrial table, limiting my interactions to the couple sitting next to me who, also suspiciously, turn out to be Alex and Rachael’s friends,” she writes.
🎧 This delightful podcast is about 71-year-old Martyn Stewart who has been recording the soundscapes of a bluebell wood near his Birmingham home for the best part of 60 years. Now, musician and sound artist Alice Boyd retraces his steps to three locations in Britain to document how these environmental soundscapes have changed.
Things to do
Tuesday
📻 Green fingers and obscure questions about rhododendrons at Birmingham Botanical Gardens’ BBC Gardeners Question Time.
📖 See International Booker Prize nominated author Eva Baltasar speak about her new novel Mammoth at the Birmingham Book Festival.
Wednesday
🎤 Birmingham Comedy Festival is in full swing. Catch Longbridge’s monthly comedy revue at Herbert’s Yard — Close Up Comedy with Raymond and Mr Timpkins.
🎤 Prefer improv? Head to 1000 Trades for Birmingham’s premier improvisation comedy group. From 7.30pm.
Thursday
🎶 Fancy some German romanticism to see in the Autumn? See Brahms performed by Thomas Søndergård & Leila Josefowicz at Symphony Hall.
🎤 BAFTA-nominated comedia Rachel Parris takes to the Town Hall stage at 7.30pm with her “dazzling blend” of stand-up and songs. Tickets from £21.50.
Erm ... Have I missed the piece about the sex club in Walsall? It was due on Thursday, apparently ...
Asking for a friend, obv!
Commenting late because I’ve got a bit of a backlog of Dispatch articles to read, but that Home of the Week is in The Franklin; we lived in another of the flats in there for nine months up until August this year as temporary accommodation after having to leave our own house temporarily. My assessment of the flat on moving in was ‘it’ll be very agreeable for the time we have to be there but hopefully not so agreeable that we’ll regret moving out when we move back home’. Sure enough, by the time we were ready to move back home we were quite glad to — The Franklin is indeed a nice place to live temporarily, but I wouldn’t want to live in it long term.