Watchdog ‘buried report into hospital abuse’
A WHISTLEBLOWER yesterday told how the Care Quality Commission had the opportunity to take action against a hospital where staff have recently been filmed abusing vulnerable patients – but instead buried his findings.
Barry Stanley-Wilkinson, 38, was the lead inspector for the watchdog when its team visited Whorlton Hall for a three-day inspection in August 2015.
Mr Stanley-Wilkinson told the Daily Mail how he produced a report which concluded the institution was inadequate in all areas – only for management to upgrade the hospital to merely ‘required improvement’. He said the damning report was never published after managers at the home complained his team had accused staff of behaving as though they were in a ‘Butlin’s holiday camp’ – which Mr Stanley-Wilkinson denies.
Managers also complained the inspectors threatened to impose ‘warning notices’, requiring the removal of dangerous building materials which had been left in a skip in the grounds of the NHS-funded hospital near Barnard Castle, County Durham.
The CQCs ‘dereliction of duty’ caused him to leave the organisation the following year, he said, after which time a different inspection team was sent in to investigate the hospital and it was later rated ‘good’ overall.
On Wednesday, BBC1’s Panorama exposed the barbaric abuse of patients with learning difficulties at Whorlton Hall. Undercover footage showed a vulnerable man being pinned to the floor as punishment, his head between a male staff member’s knees. Staff routinely taunted, mocked and threatened patients with physical abuse.
Mr Stanley-Wilkinson, who now works as a consultant for healthcare and learning disability service providers, said: ‘I’m furious with the CQC. My whole career at CQC was spent advising them on what to do about stuff like this. But they tried to tell me the report I’d written didn’t have enough evidence of wrongdoing.’
The former inspector claimed staff in 2015 were using ‘rapid tranquilisation’ to sedate patients without a proper policy, while some patients were locked in a ‘seclusion’ room for undocumented periods. He said he did not recognise any of the staff filmed by Panorama as being among those he had encountered in 2015.
The CQC said a review into what it could have done ‘differently’ is ongoing, adding: ‘This draft report did not raise any concerns about abusive practice. All CQC reports go through a rigorous peer review process.’