Ian Paterson: Redditch MP Rachel Maclean among patients operated on
An MP who was operated on by disgraced breast surgeon Ian Paterson says she has been left with "doubts about her health".
Redditch MP Rachel Maclean had a lump removed over 10 years ago but now questions if it was necessary. On Tuesday, an independent inquiry into Paterson's malpractice recommended the recall of his 11,000 patients for their treatment to be assessed. Health Secretary Matt Hancock vowed to introduce improvements within a year. Conservative Ms Maclean revealed in a tweet that she had been a patient of Paterson. She said: "The extent of the malpractice he carried out is shocking, and the response from authorities was woefully lacking." Speaking to the BBC, Ms Maclean said she wanted to encourage other people who may have been affected to "seek help if they are worried". "I had the lump removed and subsequently received the all-clear from Paterson but, obviously, the doubt is in my mind that I even needed to have that procedure [and] whether he really knew what he was doing," she said. "I think the key now is that people who haven't had any contact get help if they need it, even if it is just to set their mind at rest." She said she had responses from people from all over the Midlands - where Paterson practiced - after tweeting about her experience, . The MP's disclosure comes after the inquiry concluded that a culture of "avoidance and denial" allowed Paterson to perform botched and unnecessary operations on hundreds of patients. It also revealed five health professionals have been referred to either the General Medical Council or Nursing and Midwifery Council and one case has been sent to police. Staffordshire Police has since said the police referral was in relation to Paterson himself. "A report of a sexual assault against Ian Paterson was referred to the force by West Midlands Police in May 2018," it said. "The complainant was visited by detectives in June 2018 and after speaking to her she did not wish to pursue a complaint. There were no further safeguarding issues as Ian Paterson was in prison." Paterson, of Altrincham in Greater Manchester, who grew up in County Down, Northern Ireland, is serving a 20-year jail term for 17 counts of wounding with intent. He worked with cancer patients at NHS and private hospitals in the West Midlands over 14 years. His unregulated "cleavage-sparing" mastectomies, in which breast tissue was left behind, meant the disease returned in many of his patients. Others had surgery they did not need - some even finding out years later they did not have cancer. Judy Conduit had 23 unnecessary operations and said she almost died due to complications during surgery. "He [Paterson] told me I would have to have a bilateral mastectomy," she said. "Because I had so many surgeries already I agreed, reluctantly in a way, because I didn't really want it done but I knew I couldn't keep putting my body through all these general anaesthetics. "Unfortunately I developed complications, I was told I had blood clot in the artery next to the heart." 'Culture change' The inquiry made 15 recommendations, and Mr Hancock has vowed to introduce improvements. "There's a whole series of recommendations but the central one is about information-sharing because the authorities that inspect different parts of the health system, the information wasn't being shared properly," he told BBC Breakfast on Wednesday. "That absolutely can be fixed, it will be fixed." Jeremy Hunt MP, former Health Secretary and current chairman of the Commons Health Select Committee, has also pledged it will look at how to change NHS culture following the inquiry. "What we will look at is how we change the culture so that doctors who see something going wrong, maybe a mistake they themselves make, how we make it so that it is easy for them to talk about it openly so that mistake isn't repeated," he said. Follow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, on Twitter, and sign up for local news updates direct to your phone