Scathing NHS report finds search for author of critical letter was ‘extremely ill judged’
Bosses at Matt Hancock’s local hospital have been severely criticised in an NHS report for their part in an “intimidating” bullying scandal exposed by the Guardian.
The long-delayed review into West Suffolk hospital in Bury St Edmunds was ordered in January 2020 after the Guardian revealed that senior clinicians were subjected to an unprecedented demand to provide fingerprint samples as part of a management search for a suspected whistleblower.
A scathing 226-page report, by Christine Outram, chair of the Christie NHS foundation trust, found this tactic was “extremely ill-judged” and had a “disastrous” impact on staff morale and the reputation of the trust.
The independent report published by NHS England on Thursday criticised the current chair of the trust, Sheila Childerhouse, and the senior management team, who have all since left, for having insufficient regard for patient safety and discouraging staff from raising concerns.
Outram found that trouble began when a consultant anaesthetist doctor was seen injecting himself with drugs in November 2017, prompting some of his senior colleagues to raise the alarm.
But she said these concerns were dismissed by the then medical director, Nick Jenkins, and the then director of workforce and communications, Jan Bloomfield, who allowed the doctor to carry on working as he continued to self-medicate.
The report said it was “extraordinary” that...
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