Britain: No penalty for butcher surgeon

A gynaecologist who admitted failing to get a woman’s informed consent before conducting an operation that left her unable to have sex has been ruled fit to practise. Dr June Swinhoe accepted that she had failed to tell Marilyn Howland of the risks of operating on her vaginal prolapse because she assumed that she was no longer having sex with her husband. Mrs Howland, now 52, was not told that the operation, on March 3, 2003, at the King George Hospital in Ilford, Essex, could lead to complications such as dyspareunia – painful intercourse. She told the fitness to practise panel of the General Medical Council that Dr Swinhoe told her that the only risks were a recurrence of the prolapse and urine infections.

Despite ruling that Dr Swinhoe’s fitness to practise was impaired by her misconduct, the panel ruled that the consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist’s error was an “aberration”. Dr Peter Jefferys, the panel’s chairman, said: “The panel is confident that you do not pose any risk to patients by repeating the errors which resulted in this hearing. You have learned from this distressing experience.”

Mrs Howland, then of Epping but now living in France, was referred to Dr Swinhoe after complaining of a vaginal prolapse and discomfort during sexual intercourse. Dr Swinhoe admitted that before undertaking the vaginal repair surgery she had made “assumptions about her sexual activity that I now accept were probably incorrect”. Mrs Howland, who is also mounting a civil suit, told the panel she had not been able to have sex with her husband since the operation. She said: “I’ ve lost my husband, I’ve lost my lover, I’ve lost a lot of my life, and all unnecessarily.”

The panel described the hearing as a “wholly exceptional case”. Dr Jeffreys said: “You failed to take a full and appropriate sexual history from a patient, Mrs M Howland. You also failed to advise Mrs Howland fully of the risks associated with prolapse surgery. You thereby failed to obtain informed consent from Mrs Howland prior to undertaking vaginal repair surgery. “Your actions, in respect of this patient, fell significantly below the standards to be expected of a competent consultant gynaecologist. However, the panel finds that the deficiencies in your communication with Mrs Howland and your failure to obtain informed consent from her were an aberration and amount to an isolated departure from your usual high standards of professional competence and care.”

Dr Swinhoe, of East Finchley, North London, apologised to the panel, and said that she regretted her actions.



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