A major NHS hospital trust has recalled more than 2,500 patients with brain disorders amid fears they have been misdiagnosed by a doctor who is no longer on frontline duties.
The Belfast health and social care trust has set up special clinics so that the patients concerned – some as young as 14 – can have their condition assessed as soon as possible.
It has apologised for the “significant anxiety” the affected patients will feel at being recalled but said the move was necessary to ascertain if they were receiving the right treatment.
The patients were being treated for conditions such as epilepsy, multiple sclerosis and motor neurone disease by consultant neurologist Dr Michael Watt. But a GP and fellow doctors at the trust raised concerns about the accuracy of the diagnoses some of his patients received.
The trust’s decision to recall all of Watt’s patients follows separate reviews into the notes detailing the care he provided to some people, which were undertaken by the trust and the Royal College of Physicians.
Explaining the request to patients to come to have their health assessed, Dr Mark Michelson, the trust’s lead doctor for neurology, said: “I fully understand this will cause significant anxiety to many patients and their families and for that we are truly sorry.
“Other doctors raised concerns with the trust regarding the care and treatment provided by Dr Michael Watt to a small number of patients.”
Michelson did not reveal what the two reviews had found. However, patients are being invited to come to clinics starting this Saturday, 5 May, where nine neurology consultants will assess their condition and treatment. In all there will be 200 additional clinics so that all of the 2,500 patients can be seen within 12 weeks.
The review appointments are “to assure them, their families and ourselves that they are receiving the best treatment. The recall of such a large number of patients is so that we can be confident and thorough in ensuring that patients are having the best possible care,” Michelson added.
The father of of a woman whom Watt was treating for brain stem epilepsy told the BBC Radio Ulster Talkback programme: “She hasn’t had an appointment with neurology for at least five years and now this has come like a bombshell – it’s frightening. We feel we are left in limbo.”
Watt has not seen any patient either through the trust or privately since June 2017, six months after concerns were first raised in december 2016. He is still an employee of the trust, which runs Belfast’s four main hospitals.
Some of the care Watt provided was sub-standard, Michelson admitted. “These are patients with a wide range of neurologial conditions, some of which are debilitating, complex and significantly serious. But standards did dip around one consultant and patient safety should always be paramount – hence the recall,” he told the BBC.
