Ministers must not duck the challenge from the Paterson inquiry

It is time private hospitals, which make millions every year treating NHS patients, were forced to improve, writes Shaun Lintern

The Ian Paterson scandal lays bare the need to act on patient safety risks in private hospitals (Getty)

Another scandal. Another inquiry. Many readers of Tuesday’s Paterson inquiry report will find familiar themes – dysfunctional cultures, poor management, an environment of silence and looking the other way – all themes we’ve seen before in other healthcare disasters.

But the Paterson inquiry matters because it was not solely an NHS scandal, and the dangers revealed by the horrifying actions of one rogue surgeon have exposed the everyday risks that exist in the UK’s private healthcare system.

There have been a series of deaths and warnings in recent years to private hospital companies. In 2018 the then health secretary Jeremy Hunt warned the sector to get its house in order following the death of Peter O’Donnell, who died in 2017 and led to a coroner warning about the lack of responsibility private hospitals have for the consultants they use.