Another surgeon raises serious questions for private hospital regulation

Analysis: In the wake of the Paterson scandal, the Derek McMinn case suggest standards in the private sector may once again come under scrutiny, writes Shaun Lintern

Derek McMinn, whose case is now being investigated by police (The McMinn Centre/Flickr)

Claims about Derek McMinn stockpiling thousands of patient bones without full consent or a licence raise serious questions again about the governance of private hospitals and how such actions apparently went unchallenged for so long. That McMinn did his patients good and freed them from painful hip and knee conditions is not in doubt. He was feted by surgeons around the world and had built an enviable reputation as a leader in his field.

But the freedoms of private practice, the lack of oversight and monitoring and the general deference towards highly profitable consultants by private hospital companies may well have given McMinn a sense he was invincible.

Surgeons must never lose sight of their patients – but it has been suggested McMinn, abandoning the principles of full and informed consent, felt that their discarded body parts were his to keep.

McMinn claimed his patients gave verbal consent for him to take their bones, according to an internal report, seen by The Independent, from the Edgbaston Hospital where he carried out the majority of his operations. But this in itself is not enough. And even if that were true, would he have explained that he had no licence to do so, that he had no licence to store the bones and that he had no research plans or even approval to carry out research? 

The law on such issues in fact only goes back to 2004 and the Human Tissue Act, which was brought in following the Alder Hey children’s hospital scandal where the organs of more than 850 infants were retained by doctors.

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If you or someone you know has been operated on by Derek McMinn, email health@independent.co.uk

Bones and tissue collected before September 2006, when the act came into force, are not subject to the consent requirements – although a licence is still needed to store them. The General Medical Council requires consent to be properly documented.

Though the matter has been referred to police and Circle Health, which owns BMI Healthcare, has apologised for McMinn’s “completely unacceptable and distressing actions”. But despite this, we still do not know which patients’ bones he may have collected or where any samples are being kept.

In the background, the spectre of Ian Paterson, a breast surgeon jailed for 20 years after carrying out more than a thousand unnecessary surgeries, looms large.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic the government has delayed responding to an inquiry into the systemic failings which allowed Paterson to carry out his crimes. Those same failings could resonate with this case. A powerful surgeon, not directly employed by the hospital, seen as untouchable due to the income they bring in and who was able to bend an entire surgical team to his own ends.

The NHS is about to spend £10bn on outsourcing more NHS patients to the private sector. The claims in relation to Derek McMinn suggest that there could still be a long way to go to ensure standards in private hospitals.  

If you or someone you know has been operated on by Derek McMinn, email health@independent.co.uk