Surgeon sacked after shoulder op patient recall in Walsall

Angela Glover said the pain she experienced was excruciating

A surgeon has been sacked following the recall of hundreds of hospital patients after concerns were raised about shoulder operations.

Some lost the use of their arm after surgery by Mian Munawar Shah at Walsall Manor Hospital.

A helpline was set up by the trust and it has confirmed almost 400 people have now been contacted as part of a review.

Its chief executive acknowledged it was a "concerning" time for patients and offered his sincere apologies.

Mr Shah was ultimately stopped following the case of Angela Glover, who worked at Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust and was operated on three times.

She worked in the scanning department and asked for a scan, which finally revealed the damage that had been done.

Three reviews of her care have now shown she did not require radical surgery called a latarjet procedure and screws placed in her shoulder joint were damaging the bones.

'Pushing hard'

Ms Glover said she had been left suicidal from the pain.

"It was excruciating. It kept me awake... I was struggling to do my physio with it but I thought it was normal because I didn't know any different," she said.

"I was pushing it hard because I wanted to get my arm working with the correct exercises."

Walsall Manor Hospital has written to hundreds of patients

Another operation to correct the latarjet procedure has left her with nerve damage that cannot be repaired.

Ms Glover made a formal complaint to the trust in June 2019.

She did not receive a response until April 2020, five months after Mr Shah had been revalidated to practise - a process doctors go through every five years.

The officer in charge of that process was Matthew Lewis, who now works at University Hospital North Midlands (UHNM) in Stoke-on-Trent.

The Staffordshire hospital said the ongoing investigation meant it could not respond to specific questions, but confirmed he had been in contact with the Walsall trust and was "ready to contribute to the current processes".

Between 2013 and 2018, the Walsall trust received 21 litigation claims against Mr Shah.

Eight of these were successful and 13 were closed due to being out of time, inactive, withdrawn or liability denied, the trust said.

Have answers

The revalidation recommendation in 2019 was based on the appraisal information available to the responsible officer and was made on that basis in good faith, the spokesperson added.

It also confirmed there was "no specific action or investigation being carried out into the conduct of any specific individual with regard to the state of historic governance at the trust at this moment in time".

The Royal College of Surgeons has suggested governance could be improved around surgery - particularly around holding team meetings to discuss care - which the Walsall trust said it had since been actively working on for several months, as well as the current leadership putting in place an improvement plan.

Trust chief executive David Loughton said work had begun to prepare all patient documentation for each case to share with external assessors as part of the review.

"We appreciate this is a concerning time for our patients and we once again offer our sincere apologies to them," he said.

"We are trying to work through the process as quickly as possible so they have answers and clarity on any further treatment or follow up."

He added he had committed to keeping patients and the public updated on the status of the review.

• The helpline number set up by Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust is 01922 604631 and the trust can also be contacted via email: [e-mail]