Hundreds recalled over shoulder op concerns at Walsall hospital

Up to 600 patients are being recalled by a hospital after concerns were raised about shoulder operations.

Some patients say that they have lost the use of their arm after surgery at Walsall Manor Hospital carried out by orthopedic surgeon, Mian Munawar Shah.

Two of the patients, Angela Glover and Martin Crowley, live with constant pain and mental health struggles and are unable to sleep.

Mr Shah has been suspended. The hospital trust has set up a helpline and is sending hundreds of letters to patients who may have been affected.

Ms Glover had two operations carried out by Mr Shah. After a review it was found, that the first was unnecessary and a screw had been placed inappropriately.

Her partner, Simon Roberts, said she was in "constant pain" and unable to raise her arm or grip things in her right hand. He said that it had affected her mental health to the point she had to be sectioned after a suicide attempt.

He said: "Angela's not confident to hold a baby and that's very frustrating if you can't pick your grandchildren up and hold them. I see the tears in her eyes sometimes and that breaks my heart too."

Since problems were noticed, the they been trying to find out what may have gone wrong but Mr Roberts said: "We've had to fight and demand every step of the way and I'm still not sure we've been told what's happened. We’ve still not had any proper explanation."

Mr Crowley had an operation in 2019 after dislocating his shoulder. Mr Shah replaced the joint when the first operation was unsuccessful. Since then, he said he struggled with basic tasks such as buttoning up a shirt or holding a cup of tea. He said: "It's affecting me quite badly, there's a lot of stuff that I can't do."

Another patient, Joanne Aldridge, was operated on privately by Mr Shah in 2010 at a Spire Healthcare hospital.

The trust admitted liability and she has since received compensation after he severed her radial nerve, which left her in terrible pain and unable to lift her arm.

After Ms Aldridge's payout, she wrote to the General Medical Council's fitness to practice department in 2016 asking it to investigate Mr Shah for what had happened, because she said she felt sure she was not the only one.

The GMC declined, saying her operation was more than five years before and the Walsall trust had given Mr Shah a clean bill of health during a revalidation process in 2014.

Ms Aldridge added: "I tried to stop him because I knew that I wasn't the first and wouldn't be the last. I tried to get something done so others didn't have their lives ruined."

Between 2010 and 2018 there were 21 medical negligence claims relating to Mr Shah's surgery.

In 2020, Walsall Healthcare Trust contacted the Royal College of Surgeons (RCS) that carried out a general review of surgery and then a further review into Mr Shah's individual work. It then recommended a recall of his patients.

The surgeon has been given an interim order by the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS), stopping him from doing later jet procedures or shoulder joint replacements without supervision.

The MPTS has not commented on its decision not to take Ms Aldridge's 2016 complaint further. It said the High Court had extended interim measures on Mr Shah that had been imposed in 2021.

Medical director at the Walsall NHS trust, Dr Manjeet Shehmar, told the BBC there had been a failure to carry out multi-disciplinary team meetings and some of the procedures should have been performed in a specialist orthopaedic hospital rather than at Walsall Manor.

Trust chief executive, David Loughton, who took office in 2022, said the trust was not aware of any issues to do with Mr Shah's surgery on knee or hip joints.