Surgeon under investigation 'is miracle worker not bone collecting witch'

Eileen Kaye was one of the first 300 patients to receive groundbreaking hip resurfacing surgery from Derek McMinn in 1994.

Mrs Kaye, from Bridgnorth, says the pioneering treatment allowed her to continue a normal way of life and kept her out of a wheelchair.

Dr McMinn, of Clent, near Stourbridge, is being investigated over claims he kept the bones of more than 5,000 patients he operated on at the private Edgbaston Hospital in Birmingham.

The surgeon, who invented a pioneering hip resurfacing technique used on tennis star Sir Andy Murray, has been suspended and West Mercia Police has launched an investigation after the allegations emerged in a leaked report by BMI Healthcare, which runs the hospital.

He is alleged to have collected and stored body parts over 25 years, some of them at his farmhouse in Clent, breaching the Human Tissue Act which prohibits the removing, storing or using of human tissue without appropriate consent.

'Brilliant'

But Mrs Kaye claimed the “brilliant” surgeon was being treated “appallingly”.

The grandmother, 69, said she was not concerned by the possibility the surgeon may have kept some of her bones. She last saw him in 2018 for a check-up and described him as courteous and caring.

Mrs Kaye said: “The resurfacing takes the top of the hip away. There’s not much bone he can take away.

“I can’t understand why whoever it is has got it in for Dr McMinn. He’s a brilliant orthopaedic surgeon. He saved a lot of people from being in wheelchairs.

"Andy Murray had the exact same operation and it allowed him to carry on with his life and keep playing tennis. If it has been going on for 25 years why hasn’t someone come forward before now?”

Mrs Kaye believes if Dr McMinn had stored bones it would only have been for research purposes, and said she would be prepared to defend him in court if it came to it.

She said: “The only reason he kept bones or parts of bones would be to enhance what he has achieved with his experiments. With all that he has achieved I won’t have anything said against him.”

Asked if she would be concerned if the surgeon had stored any of her bones, she said: “It hasn’t concerned me at all. Whatever he took he took for research purposes.”

Pressed on whether permission should have been granted from patients, she said: “No. Because he’s a doctor. Why else would he take bones unless it’s for research? We’re not talking about witches here boiling bones and conjuring up magic – he’s an orthopaedic surgeon.”

Dr McMinn is said to have kept the bones of at least 5,224 patients he operated on at the private hospital,.

Circle Health Group, which acquired BMI Healthcare in June this year, said the hospital is now under new leadership and that it was taking the issues “incredibly seriously”.

Train

A spokesman said: “We will leave no stone unturned in investigating these historic issues. They have all been reported to the appropriate authorities and we will co-operate closely with regulators to resolve them.”

Circle Health Group said Dr McMinn was immediately suspended and “recommendations and learnings have been made to staff”. The Care Quality Commission was first made aware of the issue in July last year, and the matter was reported to the Health Tissue Authority and General Medical Council the following month.

Investigations have continued over the past year, with the matter also referred to the Information Commissioner’s Office, which subsequently took no further action.

According to his online profile on The McMinn Centre website, which is also based in Birmingham, Dr McMinn has performed more than 3,500 hip resurfacings and over 6,000 total hip replacements for patients “including several high profile athletes”.

He graduated from St Thomas’ Hospital in London in 1977 where he won the Cheselden medal and first prize in surgery.

“Surgeons come from around the world to observe and train with Mr McMinn in Birmingham”, the website states.