ACATALOGUE of errors led a doctor to carry out a knee replacement on a patient who never needed surgery, a watchdog has ruled.
Dr John Fraser was criticised by a General Medical Council panel after it found two patients were subjected to series of failings when they went under the knife at one of the North East’s most elite private healthcare clinics.
The experienced clinician spent nine months as an orthopaedic surgeon at Spire Washington Hospital in Rickleton, Washington, Tyne and Wear, following a career that spans four decades.
But after leaving in February last year, an investigation was launched into his conduct during two separate operations that sparked a catalogue of complaints. Now watchdogs have identified a number of failings.
Dr Fraser carried out a total knee replacement on a client – known only as Patient A – on January 29, 2010, that was not clinically justified.
After preliminary meetings, he told the patient to research the intricate knee operation on the internet instead of properly discussing potential risks.
He also carried out the surgery with an incomplete surgery kit and the GMC panel ruled he “should first have made greater efforts to obtain the correct drill bits required for the operation”.
The panel’s chairwoman, Dr Vicki Harris, said: “[A specialist] told the panel that, in a patient of 46 years of age, all conservative treatments ought to have been exhausted to justify this surgery.”
She added: “Patient A should have been re-investigated with a repeat MRI and a second arthroscopy.
“The panel has accepted the expert evidence and is satisfied that on January 5, 2010, Dr Fraser decided to carry out a knee replacement that was not clinically justified.”
The clinician was also found to have carried out an inadequate consultation with a Patient B and performed a number of procedural errors during the surgery. He failed to carry out the proper examination, did not get the opinion of a vascular surgeon prior to the operation and incorrectly used a tourniquet.
Dr Harris said: “An expert stated that, given what was known about Patient B, it was important for a formal referral to be made to a vascular surgeon or, at the very least, it was necessary to have a discussion on the telephone for a vascular opinion.
“Furthermore, the panel was told that obtaining a vascular surgeon’s opinion would have assisted you in quantifying the risk of vascular complications following the planned surgery and the risk of amputation.”
She added: “A professor told the panel that had Dr Fraser contacted him for a vascular opinion he would have been content for the surgery to proceed, however, he would have advised you not to use a tourniquet unless you had to."
The doctor graduated from the University of Glasgow in 1972 and joined the medical register in August 1973.
A hearing into his conduct will reconvene next month where the panel will rule on what action is to be taken.
