UPDATED: Since the publication of this blog the communications team of the St George’s, Epsom and St Helier Hospital Group have responded. It says:
It is not correct to say Ms Usha Prasad was dismissed for raising patient safety concerns. A disciplinary panel concluded that she should be dismissed for competency grounds, concerns around her practice/conduct and because relationships with key colleagues had broken down. This decision was upheld on appeal.
I shall be publishing a blog shortly on how this decision came about and how it was plainly unjust and directly aimed at ruining her career as a doctor.
An extraordinary missive has come to light from the leaders of the Epsom and St Helier University Trust ( now part of the St George’s, Epsom and St Helier Hospital Group) on whistleblowing.
The letter was sent to all staff to encourage them – that they will be safe if they disclose any unsafe practice or patient concern at the two hospitals. Indeed it says they shouldn’t hesitate to do so.
Ostensibly this followed the scandalous murders of babies at the Countess of Chester hospital which led to nurse Lucy Letby being sent to prison. The management of that hospital behaved appallingly threatening any doctor who raised the issue to cover it up and there will now be an independent inquiry.
What the letter doesn’t tell you about is the real behaviour of the top managers of that trust - its authors, chair Gillian Norton and chief executive , Jacqueline Totterdell – if anyone dares to report if something is wrong.
For this letter came out just six days after the trust were planning to land their biggest whistleblower, former consultant cardiologist, Usha Prasad, with a £180,000 costs bill for daring to raise the case of an ” avoidable death” of a heart patient at the trust and claims of racial and sexist discrimination. See hearing here.
Usha Prasad, who was dismissed by the trust, has had years of fighting the top management through employment tribunal hearings. The trust has spent a small fortune of taxpayer’s money employing battalions of lawyers to prove her wrong. The two top officials have been deaf and blind to any appeal on her behalf for reinstatement, including a letter from the chair of the British Medical Association.
Worse than that the lawyers led by Jessica Blackburn from Capsticks and Nadia Motraghi KC, from Old Street Chambers, have continually derided her attempts to defend herself. Jessica Blackburn described her whistleblowing claim as ” unmeritorious” in correspondence and Nadia Motraghi, described her case having ” no prospect of success” during the latest cost hearing which led the judge to order her to pay £20,000 in her absence. She also painted a picture of her making a fortune as locum -based on no recent evidence- and appeared to be an expert on London house prices to justify her paying the bill.
Jessica Blackburn rushed to send her the bill only for another judge to stay the payment as Usha Prasad, a brave fighter, is to appeal the original judgement against her later this year. The trust are still charging interest at a daily rate while she appeals.
So if I were an employees of the trust I would be beware of the silken and siren tones of the letter below and think very carefully before reporting anything to the top management. Think instead of the fate of Usha Prasad.
This is a serious shame because the sentiments in the letter are fine but the reality is rather different. I am afraid I think this is more a public relations exercise than really the top management being committed to real change. I fear reputational damage always outweighs concerns about patient safety.
Read the text of the letter below:
Dear colleagues
The news of Lucy Letby’s crimes has shocked us all. These acts were a profound betrayal of patient trust, and we hold in our thoughts all those who have been affected.
We welcome the independent inquiry that will take place to identify every lesson that can be learned and to do all possible to prevent anything like it happening again.
While dreadful events like this are thankfully extremely rare, this is a stark reminder of the vital importance of us all feeling safe and confident to speak up, raise concerns, or whistleblow if we are worried about something.We are all crucial in making sure our services run safely for our patients. It’s so important that every one of you – whatever your role – feels safe and confident to raise concerns if you have any worries. We want you to know that we will always take these seriously and you will not get into trouble for speaking up. If you feel you’re being treated differently for doing so, let us know and we will act as necessary. If you have something to say, please don’t hesitate.
Our responsibility doesn’t end with speaking up; it extends to listening to concerns and addressing them. Really listening and responding in the right way to the concerns of patients, families and colleagues should be an integral part of how we work and support each other. We know that sometimes when you raise concerns things don’t happen quickly enough, and we are introducing new measures to improve this.
In the meantime, how we respond to incidents will be strengthened across the NHS with the launch of the new Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF) from September. It will increase opportunities to learn and improve, and for closer working with those involved.
We have a Raising concerns at work policy with more detail on the process. In summary, if you ever have concerns there are several ways you can report these, including through your manager or lead director, our Freedom to Speak Up Guardians, or, if you feel it cannot be resolved internally, organisations external to the Trust.
And of course, you can speak directly to us, or any member of our executive team or Board – we are here to listen and act as necessary on what you say.
We are sure that many of you will have found these recent events upsetting, and if you would like to talk to someone please do reach out to your line manager or to our staff support service – email esth.staffcounselling@nhs.net or call (number deleted)
Thank you for everything you do every day to keep our patients and families cared for and safe.
With best wishes,
Gillian Norton, Chairman
Jacqueline Totterdell, Group Chief Executive
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This “missive” is utter hypocrisy. It disguises many facts. The truth will emerge eventually, St George’s. Listen up!
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Yes, the hypocrisy is breathtaking. Where is my sick bag?
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Squalid cover ups continue in the NHS and the root of this moral and professional corruption is that the entire bureaucracy of the NHS conspires to tell the public the big lie that the NHS remains a national treasure because no other system matches it for decency and compassion.
The opposite is true.
While NHS Executives lie, patients continue to die.
A 6 figure sum and 6 years was invested in this cover up at Derbyshire NHS Foundation Trust under CEO Steve Trenchard, Executive Director Carolyn Green, solicitor Melanie Isherwood of Weightmans and cruise ship entertainer Dr Mike Drayton:
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Got to get to the bucket
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I received the same treatment at the hands of a government department. I ultimately gave in and took a settlement rather than go to trial and risk financial ruin. The problem is that organisations know that Employment Judges are very reluctant to find in favour of whistleblowers, which in turn is a function of the inadequacies of our whistleblowing law. But it’s also worth pointing out that there is nothing wrong with the language used by the Trust’s solicitor and barrister – it is the language used in the applicable legislation and rules of court. As for this lady’s appeal, presumably to the Employment Appeal Tribunal, I’m afraid she’s unlikely to receive any more sympathetic treatment by the judges there than she got at first instance.
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Absolutely, I think you would find that this is true of many organisations, even the church of England, and if there were no such a thing as NDAs then I believe many such hypocritical incidents would come to light…
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May I draw your readers attention to some statistics published by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman about this Trust for 2022-23. (Go to PHSO/Publications/Complaints to Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman and then scroll down to the Epsom and St. Helier Trust). It’s bit hard to find. The statistics for the year are:
Complaints received 46. Decided following primary investigation 11. Resolved with agreement of the parties 0. Investigated 1. Upheld or partially upheld 0.
By their very nature, complaints decided following primary investigation cannot be upheld. They are, in fact, just screened out as not complying with PHSO criteria for investigation. The facts speak for themselves – 46 complaints – none upheld by the Ombudsman and 34 not even investigated! Is it any wonder that NHS Trusts are keen too steer complainants in the direction of the Ombudsman?
With regard to your article David. Nothing will change until complaints raised from both patients and hospital staff come under one truly independent investigative body, having with what to the Trusts will seem like draconian powers of investigation and sanction.
Perhaps then we might be in a situation which has better outcomes for patients and staff and reduces NHS litigation to a minimum. I doubt anyone seeks hospital treatment with the intention of suing a doctor
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Squalid cover ups continue in the NHS and the root of this moral and professional corruption is that the entire bureaucracy of the NHS conspires to tell the public the big lie that the NHS remains a national treasure because no other system matches it for decency and compassion.
The opposite is true.
While NHS Executives lie, patients continue to die.
A 6 figure sum and 6 years was invested in this cover up at Derbyshire NHS Foundation Trust:
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Hello David,
Thanks for all of the great work that you do. It is interesting reading about the NHS.(?) especially as I have first hand experience of Epsom Hospital both for myself and for my father who was sent there to die.Appalling. Anyway, I was just wondering when the truth is going to come out about the so called NHS, if ever. I was curious about all of this trust business and eventually looked online. Following through you come to the senior management which is a company in Seattle in the USA. I was not at all surprised as it has been obvious for sometime about the deliberate mismanagement of services so that people will switch to private insurance. The increase inadvertising for private insurance, health care providers increasing rapidly. Even private contracts being given for ambulance services. I am old enough to remember the days before trusts (thank you for all of the help with 50’s womenalso – it is great to have the suppport ). I could rant on about various subjects but will only get myself more angry.. Thanks again. Lindsey
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After the Post Office Scandal, perhaps managers are starting to realise the public will hold them personally responsible for unjust and corrupt practices within their organisation or, being the NHS, this is just a ‘tick box’ exercise to make it look as if they are managing professionally. Like the Post Office, the public’s trust in the Management is fast dwindling – it is not your role to protect the organisation’s behind at any cost but investigate and resolve problems fully and fairly as the taxpayers would wish.
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What do you expect, one of the board has a perfect track record on handling whistleblowing
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Just disgraceful bullying behaviour. Abuse of power and money (tax-payers money) by this employer and shameful behaviour. What kind of employer hires 20 LAWYERS to silence a Doctor ?! This itself requires a FULL and INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATION.
The CEO, the Chairperson and all those involved in the case such as Dr Marsh, Dr Bogle should do the decent thing and resign. They should be investigated by the GMC and CQC Fit for purpose test.
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The GMC, Health Ombudsman, Trustees etc are are all cut from the same incestuous cloth. Get your hard evidence and witnesses together and make a criminal complaint to the Police. Make it very clear that should no action be taken their regulators and MSN will be the next stop.
New Year 2024, IS the season to now whistleblow. You will be in very good company i.e Horizon and Rochdale.
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The CQC are only too familiar with cases that their predecessor, the SSI, were formally alerted to in 2000 that would raise concerns. Also the nursing Midwifery Council dealt with a complaint that lacked serious and criminal detail that the employer somehow omitted from their paperwork
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