Surgeon's complications blasted in papers
30/08/2010 11:51 Filed in: Plastic Surgery
A surgeon working with Transform, in Scotland, has had two patients take their stories to the newspapers and have complained about their outcomes and the care they received. The stories are on line here and here. In this blog I’ll be writing my opinions on what went wrong and why did this happen?
Did it happen because the surgeon is a butcher? Well, every surgeon has complications. Unfortunately, that’s a sad fact of any medical treatment. All treatments are prone to complications and no surgeon has a 0% complication rate. If a surgeon says they don’t have complications, then either they’re lying, they don’t see their patients after surgery, they haven’t done enough cases to have one that didn’t go quite right, or they’re blinkered in their viewpoint and they’re not seeing things from the patient’s perspective. A successful operation is a definition that can be seen from many different viewpoints. So, I don’t think the surgeon is a butcher but why did it happen?
Is it because the surgeon didn’t want to put things right for his patient? All surgeons are trained as doctors, and as doctors we should always have our patients’ best interests at heart. If something doesn’t go according to plan then the vast majority of surgeons want to put it right. Even now, we hear from the news story that the surgeon wants to improve things for his two patients. So, I don’t think that’s the reason. So why did it happen?
I think this has all happened because of the way that some companies work. Many high street companies will try and bring patients in to their clinics and because the use surgeons who fly in from abroad the patient only gets to see their surgeon for about 5 minutes. This compares to 30 minutes for my consultations. With many high street companies using surgeons who live abroad, is it any surprise that it’s difficult to see the surgeon again when the patient identifies a problem and wants to discuss it? The companies have their financial interests at heart rather than their patients’ interests at heart, so they push through new patients into the surgeons’ clinics rather than follow up patients. If a patient has a problem, they speak to their patient care co-ordinator (sometimes because the surgeon lives abroad in any case). There is no money to be made by the surgeon seeing all his patients for follow up whenever the patient feels it necessary. Patient care co-ordinators are salespeople who earn commission on the number of patients who have operations every month.
If someone has a problem after an operation, they have to try and book an appointment through their salesperson. Clearly, the salesperson has no financial interest in getting a review appointment with the surgeon. So sometimes it can be difficult to get to see the surgeon again.
When patients think they’re getting nowhere, they start to complain and take things further. And I think this is why we’re reading about this in the papers.
At La Belle Forme, the clinic is owned and run by a plastic surgeon who works in one of Glasgow’s leading private hospitals. I am the surgeon that runs the clinic, and I perform surgery at the Glasgow Nuffield Hospital. I also have a clinic at the Nuffield Hospital where I see all my patients for follow up. The whole package of care is performed at the hospital and if there are any problems after surgery (remember there’s no such thing as a zero percent complication rate), then all my patients have access to see me by simply calling the hospital and booking an appointment. My patients don’t have to go through a salesperson who is more interested in getting new custom into the clinic. If I can fix a problem, I have never said no to trying to fix it for my patient.
As doctors, we should remember that we have treated people, and these people become our patients. If we can do something to fix a problem we should try and do so. If we can’t fix the problem then sometimes we ask our colleagues to give a second opinion. However, if you can’t even see your surgeon after the operation, then how can this all be done for you.
Did it happen because the surgeon is a butcher? Well, every surgeon has complications. Unfortunately, that’s a sad fact of any medical treatment. All treatments are prone to complications and no surgeon has a 0% complication rate. If a surgeon says they don’t have complications, then either they’re lying, they don’t see their patients after surgery, they haven’t done enough cases to have one that didn’t go quite right, or they’re blinkered in their viewpoint and they’re not seeing things from the patient’s perspective. A successful operation is a definition that can be seen from many different viewpoints. So, I don’t think the surgeon is a butcher but why did it happen?
Is it because the surgeon didn’t want to put things right for his patient? All surgeons are trained as doctors, and as doctors we should always have our patients’ best interests at heart. If something doesn’t go according to plan then the vast majority of surgeons want to put it right. Even now, we hear from the news story that the surgeon wants to improve things for his two patients. So, I don’t think that’s the reason. So why did it happen?
I think this has all happened because of the way that some companies work. Many high street companies will try and bring patients in to their clinics and because the use surgeons who fly in from abroad the patient only gets to see their surgeon for about 5 minutes. This compares to 30 minutes for my consultations. With many high street companies using surgeons who live abroad, is it any surprise that it’s difficult to see the surgeon again when the patient identifies a problem and wants to discuss it? The companies have their financial interests at heart rather than their patients’ interests at heart, so they push through new patients into the surgeons’ clinics rather than follow up patients. If a patient has a problem, they speak to their patient care co-ordinator (sometimes because the surgeon lives abroad in any case). There is no money to be made by the surgeon seeing all his patients for follow up whenever the patient feels it necessary. Patient care co-ordinators are salespeople who earn commission on the number of patients who have operations every month.
If someone has a problem after an operation, they have to try and book an appointment through their salesperson. Clearly, the salesperson has no financial interest in getting a review appointment with the surgeon. So sometimes it can be difficult to get to see the surgeon again.
When patients think they’re getting nowhere, they start to complain and take things further. And I think this is why we’re reading about this in the papers.
At La Belle Forme, the clinic is owned and run by a plastic surgeon who works in one of Glasgow’s leading private hospitals. I am the surgeon that runs the clinic, and I perform surgery at the Glasgow Nuffield Hospital. I also have a clinic at the Nuffield Hospital where I see all my patients for follow up. The whole package of care is performed at the hospital and if there are any problems after surgery (remember there’s no such thing as a zero percent complication rate), then all my patients have access to see me by simply calling the hospital and booking an appointment. My patients don’t have to go through a salesperson who is more interested in getting new custom into the clinic. If I can fix a problem, I have never said no to trying to fix it for my patient.
As doctors, we should remember that we have treated people, and these people become our patients. If we can do something to fix a problem we should try and do so. If we can’t fix the problem then sometimes we ask our colleagues to give a second opinion. However, if you can’t even see your surgeon after the operation, then how can this all be done for you.