Michael Watt: Further 19 former patients of neurologist are recalled

Dr Michael Watt worked at the Royal Victoria Hospital as a neurologist

A further 19 ex-patients of neurologist Dr Michael Watt are being recalled by a health trust as they had not previously been identified due to an error.

The extension to the patient recall involves patients seen between June 1996 and March 2012.

Each of the patients has now been invited to an appointment with a consultant where their medication will be reviewed, Belfast Health Trust said.

A public inquiry published its final report in June.

It found that Belfast Heath Trust failed to intervene quickly enough in the former doctor's practice.

More than 5,000 former patients were invited to have their cases examined for possible misdiagnoses in what is Northern Ireland's largest patient recall.

On Wednesday, Belfast Health Trust said it had identified 19 further people who should have been part of the third Recall in 2021.

'Precautionary basis'

It said the patients were not identified previously due to an error on the trust's patient administration system.

"We are very sorry these people have not been contacted before now, and I would stress that they are being contacted on a precautionary basis," deputy chief executive Bernie Owens, said.

"Each of the 19 individuals have been invited to an appointment where their medication will be reviewed, and if needs be, corrected."

In a statement, Northern Ireland Health Minister Robin Swann said he was providing the statement to ensure the Northern Ireland Assembly is kept up to date.

The Independent Neurology Inquiry concluded that the combined effect of the failures ensured that patterns in the consultant's work were missed for a decade.

Key conclusions included:

• The Belfast Trust should have intervened earlier, but failed to do so

• Systems and processes in place to assure the public about patient safety prior to November 2016 failed

• The effect of numerous failures ensured problems were missed for many years

• Failures not confined to Belfast Trust - communications between different organisations and management levels were inadequate

Dr Cathy Jack, Belfast Health Trust chief executive, apologised to Dr Watt's patients.

Patients who were affected by the inquiry results said they had been failed.

'Confidence greatly damaged'

David Galloway, director of MS Society NI said, the recall had greatly damaged patients' confidence in the health service and the Belfast Trust.

"It is very disappointing that only three months after giving an assurance that the recall was completed, the minister has had to announce a further 19 patients are now being recalled due to an administrative error," he said.

"I have been assured that the trust has completed an exercise to be certain that this error does not affect any other patient."