Inquests into deaths of patients of convicted breast surgeon will examine system failures

Inquests to decide whether patients of the rogue breast surgeon Ian Paterson died unnaturally at his hands will look at failures in the system, the judge conducting the inquests has said.1Opening the first preliminary hearing on 9 June, the circuit judge Richard Foster said that his duty as coroner was to ensure that the relevant facts were “fully, fairly, and fearlessly investigated” and he would “not hesitate to refer any evidence of further criminal liability to the director of public prosecutions.”The preliminary inquiries by the coroner’s office were triggered by West Midlands Police after Paterson’s conviction and sentencing in 2017. Paterson, who attended the coroner’s hearing remotely, is serving a 20 year prison sentence after he was convicted of 17 counts of wounding with intent and three counts of unlawful wounding of patients. He worked in the NHS at the Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust, now part of University…
Read Original Article: Inquests into deaths of patients of convicted breast surgeon will examine system failures »