Legal bid to secure public inquiry into work of disgraced neurologist Michael Watt

Colin Armstrong has issued preliminary proceedings against the Department of Health after it announced plans to review a further 18 patients’ records.

Mr Armstrong claims the decision is irrational and inadequate due to the potential scale of misdiagnoses.

In 2018 Mr Watt was at the centre of Northern Ireland’s biggest-ever patient recall, when thousands were re-examined over concerns about the treatment they received.

The former consultant neurologist at the Royal Victoria Hospital was struck off the medical register last year after his professional performance was found to be unacceptably low.

A tribunal identified serious failings by the medic, who has not been practising as a doctor since 2017.

The recall of up to 5,000 patients led to a change of diagnosis in about one in five cases, according to reports.

Police are also carrying out an investigation into Mr Watt’s clinical practices under the name Operation Belgrain.

In a separate move in 2022, records for 44 patients who died under his care were reviewed by the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) at the request of watchdog body the Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority (RQIA).

It found significant failures in their care and treatment under the neurologist, as well as poor communication with families.

Stormont Health Minister Mike Nesbitt announced last month that the clinical records of another 18 patients are to be examined in the next phase of the Neurology Deceased Patients Review (DPR), with an anticipated completion date of March 2025.

Mr Armstrong’s late mother, Ruth Armstrong, was misdiagnosed by Mr Watt in 2001 and prescribed medication for epilepsy. She died in November the following year, aged 78.

The Belfast-based research associate at Queen’s University, believes that the next stage of the DPR does not go far enough.

Amid estimates that in the 10-year period prior to May 2018 more than 3,000 deceased patients may have been under the care of Mr Watt at some point in their lives, his lawyers contend it is irrational and inadequate to review just 18 patient records in this phase.

Belfast legal firm KRW Law has now sent a pre-action letter to the Department of Health in the first step towards a possible judicial review challenge.

Mr Armstrong insisted the initial RCP report in 2022 was enough to merit establishing a statutory-public inquiry into the neurologist’s public and private clinical practice.

“Whilst it is clear that Watt was clinically negligent for many years… my concern, which I believe is shared by the public, is how he managed to get away with it for so long,” he said.

“How can the catastrophic failures of those systems and institutions which were responsible for regulating and governing his practice have been allowed to happen?

"Who was responsible and, most importantly, how can this be prevented in the future to protect and save the lives of those who are most vulnerable when in need of clinical treatment?”