Better patient safety regulation needed

Following the well-publicised case of Ian Paterson, the Royal College of Surgeons (RCS) has called for a review of the way private hospitals are regulated.

Paterson, a breast surgeon, was was convicted of unlawfully wounding patients during surgery at private clinics in the West Midlands last month, with his sentencing due in May.

In an open letter, the RCS reassures the public that rogue doctors should now be caught by modern rules governing medical practice, but also called for a review by the next elected government of how safety standards and transparency can improve, particularly in the private sector.

Arguing that there should be ‘an equal focus on patient safety in both the private and public sectors’, the RCS also suggests that the private sector should report similar patient safety data as the NHS, including data on unexpected deaths, never events, and serious injuries. Moreover, cosmetic surgery, which happens almost entirely in the private sector, needs to be better regulated.

Clare Marx, president of the RCS, said: “There are still a number of areas which require urgent improvements to protect patients from harm. Robust regulation remains an important way of protecting the public.

“Patient safety initiatives have tended to concentrate on the NHS but we also need a strong focus on the private sector, particularly in the collection and publication of patient safety data in private hospitals. We are therefore calling for a review of the sector to look at how safety standards and data transparency can improve. Similarly, regulation is not keeping pace with the booming industry of cosmetic surgery, which also largely takes place in the private sector.

“We continue to call for the General Medical Council to be given powers to annotate the medical register with details of which surgeons are qualified to undertake cosmetic surgery.