A report on a former spinal surgeon who worked at Salford Royal hospital whose patients complained of being left with devastating results has been published.
It found that John Bradley Williamson repeatedly exercised ‘unacceptable and unprofessional behaviour’, carried out botched surgeries, and left patients with serious blood loss,
The Look Back Review related to the spinal surgeon who worked at Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust – now part of the Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust – up until January 2015.
Back in August 2014, an anonymous whistleblower contacted Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust, Care Quality Commission (“CQC”) and Sir Robert Francis then QC, now KC, (a barrister who has chaired several high-profile medical inquiries) with concerns about the Surgeon
The letter from the anonymous whistleblower described a number of areas of concern relating to Consultant Spinal Surgeon A’s behaviour, conduct, probity and capability.
In 2021, an inquiry was launched into the former Salford Royal Hospital consultant and his treatment of some 130 patients
One of his patients, a BBC actress revealed she’s been left with ‘chronic pain and fatigue’ after years of operations by a spinal surgeon
The Spinal Patient Safety Look Back Review was instigated in 2021 after a group of colleagues voiced that they did not feel concerns previously raised in relation to this surgeon’s practice had been properly investigated.
In addition to the Look Back Review into previous patients’ care, the NCA also commissioned an independent barrister to review the Trust’s historic management of concerns raised regarding this surgeon. The findings of this review are being finalised and will be shared in due course.
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.”
