A leading Salford Royal surgeon’s botched operations put a host of patients at risk over a 20 year career, according to a new report.
The report, published by the Northern Care Alliance, found that Salford Royal’s former spinal surgeon John Bradley Williamson’s “unacceptable and unprofessional” behaviour put 20 out of 130 patients at risks ranging from moderate to severe, during a five year period.
The consultant, who was employed at the trust between 1991 and January 2015, was found to have completed botched surgeries which left some patients with blood loss and mobility issues.
Among the issues raised in the report, 23 cases of issues with screw placement and screws being misplaced were identified, as well as nine examples of “a failure to recognise and/or investigate or act on post operative complications in a timely way, if at all.”
The report comes after an inquiry into the 66-year-olds surgeries was launched in 2021 by the Northern Care Alliance.
It read: ” [His] documentation was poor and found to be inaccurate or inconsistent with other records completed by healthcare professionals in a high number of cases.
“[His] compliance with informed consent processes was found to be poor in a high number of cases. The risks documented on the consent form and associated documentation did not reflect those of the proposed surgery.
“[His] surgical technique was judged to be poor in multiple cases. Issues with screw placement and screws being misplaced were identified in a high number of cases. In a number of cases, surgery was found to be poorly planned and patients suffered high blood loss for the surgery performed. They also incorrectly applied paediatric surgical practice and concepts to more complex adult surgical patients.
“Their communication with many patients was poor. Failings in being open and honest with patients were identified in a high number of cases.”
Dr Rafik Bedair, NCA Chief Medical Officer, said: “Every patient has the right to receive a good standard of care and where this is not the case, they deserve to understand what went wrong. Sadly, in this case, things did go wrong, and twenty patients were harmed. We are deeply sorry for this.
“It is regrettable that it took so long for this investigation to happen, but when concerns were raised with us by a group of colleagues through our ‘Freedom to speak up’ process in 2021, we acted upon this quickly. Even though many of these surgeries were carried out years ago, time does not matter where patient safety is concerned.
“As a new leadership team, listening to our colleagues is incredibly important to us and we were determined to understand what happened and learn important lessons.
“We thank the patients and their families that have been involved in the review.
“Our spinal unit provides safe care for our patients and people should be assured that we’ve been in touch with anyone whose care or treatment we needed to look at. Of course, any patient who has any concerns, can come forward at any time for advice.”
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