Intimidation of witness in trust review ‘indefensible’
Southern Health NHS employee bombarded after deaths evidence
A WITNESS who gave evidence at an independent panel looking into deaths under the care of an NHS trust has been inundated with intimidating phone calls, emails and tweets.
Beth Ford, who works for Southern Health NHS Trust, gave evidence on March 18 as part of an independent review panel into the trust.
The review comes following five deaths under the trust between 2011 and 2016, in the hopes that Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust will improve its complaints handling, communicate better with families and examine the supervision structure.
But in a statement issued in yesterday’s proceedings, Nigel Pascoe QC – who is heading the review – revealed that Ms Ford has been subjected to intimidation before giving evidence, and said that if this continues, criminal prosecution could soon follow.
He said: ‘Some of these communications are already in the public arena and we are of the strong view that if they were all made public, then any reasonable member of the public would be outraged by such cruel and calculated pressure, carrying the clear capability of causing harm.
‘However, the view of the panel is that, taken as a whole, those messages, sent to a witness, are totally unacceptable, damaging and deeply disturbing.
‘They appear to have been targeted both to intimidate and to demean the recipient. That is indefensible.’
During her evidence, Ms Ford said: ‘I want to make it very clear that it was not Southern Health staff or Southern Health as an organisation that I have been intimidated by – it was members of the public.’
On Twitter two accounts, @ justiceforfami3 and @ truth_families1, have been verbally attacking the user involvement facilitator.
One tweet told Ms Ford she had ‘mud in her eyes and blood on her hands’.
The former account links to a blog run by campaigner, Geoff Hill – but he says he has nothing to do with it.
‘I have no link to whoever these people are, I don’t even use Twitter,’ he said.
‘Whoever is behind this is being very silly. They shouldn’t be speaking to anyone like this.
‘That being said, I don’t think she should have been put forward for this panel review in the first place.’
Southern Health NHS Trust has also been contacted for comment.