INQUESTS have been opened and adjourned into the deaths of a further ten former patients of disgraced breast surgeon Ian Paterson.
The coroner, judge Richard Foster, said he had reason to believe poor care played a part in all their deaths.
Inquests have been opened and adjourned into the deaths of a further ten former patients of disgraced breast surgeon Ian PatersonPA
The women, aged 29 to 85, died between 1999 and 2015.
Their inquests add to 38 others opened since July 2020.
There could be up to 80 deaths under scrutiny when full hearings begin in October next year, the coroner told the hearing in Birmingham.
They have followed a review of hundreds of cases of women whose death certificates referred to breast cancer.
Paterson is serving a 20-year jail term for carrying out more than 1,000 unnecessary and unauthorised procedures on NHS and private breast cancer patients over 14 years.
The coroner adjourned each inquest until substantive hearings, to start on October 7 2024 and due to last up to 11 months.
He urged any next of kin of Paterson’s former patients to come forward.
Paterson worked in private and NHS hospitals from 1997 to 2011.
He was jailed in 2017 for 17 offences after carrying out “cleavage-sparing” mastectomies on patients, which left behind breast tissue and risked a return of cancer.
An independent inquiry ruled that he had carried out hundreds of unnecessary operations on hundreds of patients, exaggerating or inventing cancer risks.
The inquiry report also found that despite concerns being raised as early as 2003, Paterson was free to perform the harmful surgeries due to a “culture of avoidance and denial”.
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