Twenty women being treated for breast cancer underwent unnecessary mastectomies, an NHS trust in north-east England has told the BBC.
They were part of a larger group of hundreds of patients who suffered harm during care at the breast unit of the County Durham and Darlington Foundation Trust (CDDFT).
This admission follows disclosures about significant failings within the unit, which the BBC reported last year.
Steve Russell, who has recently stepped into the role of CDDFT’s chief executive, says he apologizes “unreservedly” for the harm the trust inflicted.
“There are no words I could use to convey how personally distressed I am,” he says. “What happened was utterly unacceptable.”
After we reported on serious failings at the trust’s breast cancer unit, dozens of affected women and their families got in touch with us.
Patients recounted the shock of learning that a mastectomy (the removal of all or part of a breast) could have been avoided, along with the psychological and physical pain that many continue to endure.
We also spoke with former patients who have banded together to support one another and demand a public inquiry.
CDDFT is currently conducting an internal review of breast cancer cases from January 2023 to February 2025, as well as those of 640 former patients who reached out to a dedicated helpline.
Out of 514 cases the trust has reviewed so far, 315 patients were found to have suffered harm, among them 77 who were significantly harmed. One patient is known to have died.
It reports that cases have also been uncovered in which cancer diagnoses were missed or delayed. For some of these patients, the cancer went on to spread.
Russell told the BBC’s Today program that the trust will meet in the coming week to decide whether to broaden the review’s scope and examine up to 10,000 cases going back as far as 2015.
He says the trust has sought advice from patients’ groups, clinical experts, and legal representatives, and that it will need to take “a really balanced view.” Any decision, he adds, will be made public.
The National Crime Agency says it is now collaborating with Durham Police to investigate allegations from former patients and establish whether any criminal offenses have occurred.
Denise Howarth is among several women whom the NHS has now informed that their breast was removed unnecessarily.
“I was just in shock, then ended up in tears on the phone,” says the 51-year-old from Consett, County Durham.
In 2023, Denise was told she had grade 1 (slow-growing) cancer after she found a lump in her breast.
At first she had a lumpectomy, followed by a mastectomy, along with eight rounds of chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
The phone call she got from the NHS in September 2025 was soon followed by a letter from CDDFT. It stated that Denise could have been given a second lumpectomy instead of having her whole breast removed, though it admitted this option had never been discussed with her.
She says the apology was “all good and well,” but it will not give her breast back.
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Jo (not her real name) got in touch with the trust’s helpline regarding a mastectomy she had had in 2021.
The former NHS worker says that during a phone call earlier this year, she was told the procedure could have been avoided.
Jo says she had trusted the people she saw as colleagues to do what was best for her.
“You go to work to do your best, don’t you?” she says. So why would I think that anybody else wouldn’t?”
She now says what happened to her makes her feel “mutilated” and that the trust’s mistakes were “absolutely unforgivable.”
The consultant in charge of Jo and Denise’s care was Mr. Amir Bhatti, who served as CDDFT’s clinical lead for breast services from 2013 to 2024. He has since been suspended from clinical practice but remains employed by the trust on full pay.
Last year, we reported that the trust had paid nearly £6m over six years to breast cancer diagnostic clinics and surgery companies privately run by Bhatti.
Concerns about this arrangement were raised in a 2025 review of how the trust was run, conducted by governance specialist Mary Aubrey.
She said that outsourcing patient appointments had created financial incentives that could be “a risk to clinical standards.”
Russell argues that payment per service is fairly common in healthcare, though he tells us the trust has now stopped this arrangement for breast cancer services.
“We recognize there was a conflict of interest that wasn’t managed properly,” he says.
Last year, a report by the Royal College of Surgeons (RCS) also voiced concerns that breast cancer cases had not been adequately discussed in multi-disciplinary team meetings (MDTs).
The purpose of these meetings is to make sure treatment plans are reviewed and questioned by surgeons, radiologists, pathologists, and cancer specialists—prior to major decisions, such as mastectomies, being taken.
According to the RCS report, there was scant evidence that the trust’s breast unit was contributing to MDTs, and decisions on patients’ cases were being reached on the basis of the unchallenged opinion of individual surgeons.
Outdated practices at the trust that fell short of best practice guidance included a high rate of “re-excision” (repeated procedures), low uptake of breast reconstruction immediately after mastectomy, and operations that may have been performed “too quickly.”
The Aubrey review also indicated that patients may have been treated by locum consultants who were not competent and noted that Bhatti had repeatedly raised concerns about trust delays in securing vital diagnostic equipment.
CDDFT states that it is fully co-operating with the investigation by Durham Police and the National Crime Agency and is sharing information whenever it is requested.
But for the women whose breasts have been wrongly removed, it is too late.
“You can’t put a breast back,” says O’Riordan. ” These are lifelong disfigurements, and it’s horrific. “Breast cancer surgery,” she says, “has some of the tightest guidelines and protocols, and you should have the same treatment wherever you are, private or public, in any part of the UK.”
The Department of Health and Social Care states that its thoughts are with the women and families impacted, yet it cannot “comment further on those past failings while the current investigation is ongoing.”
It goes on to say that the trust is working urgently alongside NHS England, the Care Quality Commission, and independent experts to address what happened “and to ensure that all future patients receive safe care.” ↻
We reached out to Amir Bhatti regarding the concerns that had been raised. He stated, “I am grateful for the opportunity to respond, but I remain committed to the ongoing trust investigation, and it would be inappropriate for me to discuss this whilst proceedings are ongoing.”
At Beamish Football Centre in Stanley, a support group is gathering where women and their loved ones can talk about their experiences of poor care from CDDFT’s breast care unit.
“My surgery was in 2016,” says Lynn, one of the group’s organizers, “and I’ve felt awful ever since.” The trust has also informed her that removing her breast was not necessary.
A number of the women say the trust has formally apologized to them, yet they all insist that what they want most of all is to know who was accountable for the failures in their care.
The group stated that it is now putting its focus on calling for a public inquiry.
“I didn’t realize how many ladies lived so near me that had been affected,” says Lynn. “I’m just totally overwhelmed.”
