Leslie Irwin practised at Spire Washington Hospital and retired from South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust in May 2022.

A Spire spokesperson: ‘We are currently reviewing specific procedures that were provided to a select cohort of patients of Mr Leslie Irwin, a consultant orthopaedic surgeon who previously practised at Spire Washington Hospital.

‘We are in direct contact with this cohort of patients to review their care and offer support. The review is being run in accordance with NHS England's National Quality Board: Recall Framework, which Spire Healthcare helped to develop.'

A statement from South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust said: ‘We have liaised with Spire to understand the scale of their patient recall and to help inform our next steps as a trust. We are currently working through the detail of which patients we may need to review and will contact those people directly and as a matter of priority.'

John Lowther, a clinical negligence lawyer at Slater and Gordon in the North East, who is acting for a growing number of patients of Irwin, said: ‘Understandably, it is deeply concerning that a surgeon who has practiced for so many years in two North East hospitals is under investigation for the standard of care he provided.

‘It is fair to say we have received a significant number of enquiries already and that is increasing by the day. While we cannot speculate on the scale of this investigation, the fact we have had so many people coming forward already really does give cause for concern.

‘We will support these people in every way we can in finding out how and why things have gone wrong in their care and do all we can to ensure they find the answers and accountability they need and deserve.'