I have just been told I have failed back surgery

Ah-hah!! The fact that the 2nd surgeon admitted to you that hat he had already spoken to the 1st one, and presumably without your prior authority and consent, is a breach of patient confidentiality and you can certainly complain to the G.M.C. about this 2nd doctor on those grounds alone, if you wanted to. Did you have anyone there with you to hear the 2nd doctor admit this or not? If not, is there a train of emails/correspondence which back up your allegation? If none of the above, I'm expecting the 2nd doctor to now completely deny having said this. However, breaching patient confidentiality is supposed to be serious professional misconduct.

 

Oh yes it is. From memory, there was a case where a patient saw someone like a psychiatrist, who then went behind the patient's back and wrote to the GP about the consultation. The patient had not consented to, or even been first told about this. The Claimant  won limited damages in the region of, I think, c.£5-£6K. Obviously, if the specialist had told someone non- medical, and not the GP, then damages would have been even more.

The point is that if someone has gone to a back surgeon without going through his G.P., then the results of that private, 'closed' consultation are private and patient confidentiality should not have been breached. And even if the patient got referred from his GP to the private surgeon, another private surgeon, in another non-NHS setting should not have spoken with the 1st surgeon without clearing it with the patient first and therefore without prior patient consent. For the 1st private surgeon to divulge anything in these circumstances is unlawful. Full Stop.