East Surrey Hospital has told cancer patients they may have suffered “harm” because of the care provided by their consultant.
Letters have been sent to 27 prostate and bladder cancer patients, all of whom were treated by Paul Miller between 2006 and 2013.
The hospital began to receive complaints about Mr Miller in November last year. An internal investigation was carried out, resulting in the Consultant Urologist being dismissed.
Mr Miller describes the decision as “unjustified”. He is now the focus of the formal investigation by the General Medical Council (GMC).
Patients not “given the whole range of treatment options”
The care given to each of Mr Miller’s patients has been reviewed by an independent panel of urologists. It found “that 27 patients came to harm because of the treatment they received.”
Des Holden, the Trust’s medical director, explained why:
“The initial treatments that were offered to them, they perhaps weren’t given the whole range of treatment options and they really weren’t told – our external reviewers tell us – they weren’t told the full kind of consequences of the choices they were making, so some did not receive definite treatment”, he said.
Consequently the patients are at increased risk of the cancer returning. Five of the patients have since died, although the hospital states it would not “be correct” to link the deaths to the treatment provided.
The external panel of urologists also found that a small number of patients received care that “fell below the standards we would expect”, but they had not been harmed as a result.
Mr Holden said: “On behalf of the Trust, I apologist unreservedly for the errors in these patients’ treatment.”
“I acknowledge and appreciate that the outcome of the clinical review and the content of the letters will be deeply distressing to our patients and their families and I am sorry.”
He added that the letters were intended “to enable compensation to be considered and paid.”
Cancer medical negligence
If you or your family member has been harmed because of negligent cancer care, please get in touch with us to discuss a compensation claim.
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