‘Scandalous’ NHS failings over 10 years
FAILINGS within Pennine Acute NHS Trust leadership described as ‘scandalous’ were allowed to drag on for 10 years, the government has admitted.
In a parliamentary debate prompted by our sister paper’s the M.E.N’s explosive investigation into the trust’s maternity services, MPs lined up to ask why fears first raised in parliament a decade ago had not been acted upon.
Health minister Philip Dunne admitted failings uncovered at the trust last year were very similar to those first flagged up – and blamed a ‘historic failure of leadership’. He also expressed ‘sincere regret’ for the deaths and serious harm uncovered by the M.E.N.
Labour’s shadow health minister and a string of backbenchers lined up to praise the article, which led veteran Blackley and Broughton MP Graham Stringer to call the debate.
Meanwhile, two of the trust’s previous chief executives were named and shamed in the debate.
In a damning indictment of Pennine’s previous leaders, successive governments and national health chiefs, Mr Stringer said identical warnings raised by him in parliament a decade ago – as well as by consultants at the trust, trade unions and an independent report at the same time – prompted little change until government inspectors entered the trust last February.
“Ten years ago – almost exactly 10 years ago, on January 24, 2006 – I sponsored another debate on the Pennine Acute NHS hospital trust,” he said.
“The shocking thing is that when I re-read that debate, it covered almost exactly the same points.”
Since then, he said, there had been a series of external reports and journalistic investigations into failures within the trust, while his own constituents had repeatedly come to him with stories of unnecessary suffering.
“But what do we find today?” he said.
“That the chief executive has gone elsewhere, the current director of operations is on gardening leave. We’re almost back where we were 10 years ago. And in between, there have been a number of warning signs that things have been going wrong.
“The question is, with all these red lights flashing all over the place over a period of 10 years, with dire consequences for patients, why the national organisation of the NHS – more recently the clinical commissioners – had not picked this up and sorted out the situation?”
New management was finally brought in to head up Pennine last April, weeks after government inspectors realised the scale of the crisis within the trust and branded it ‘inadequate’. Dr Gillian Fairfield, the sitting chief executive, was immediately sent on secondment to head up another failing NHS trust in Brighton.
Director of operations Hugh Mullen was placed on gardening leave and that is understood to remain the case.
Shadow health minister Justin Madders agreed the failings at the trust had been within leadership rather than among staff, to whom he paid tribute.
All that had changed in the last 10 years was that the problems had ‘increased in severity’, he said, adding that there had been repeated ‘warnings’, including sky-high litigation claims.
“The issues mentioned are not new,” he said. “That’s a decade where we’ve had inaction, patients and staff have been let down and there has been a lack of leadership.”
Oldham West and Royton MP Jim McMahon, said his first job had been at North Manchester General and that he was also born there, stressing that he feels ‘protective’ of the hospital. “It’s like a family. But that doesn’t mean that we defend the indefensible,” he said.
“And there are things that have taken place that have affected people’s lives. There are deaths that have occurred that could have been avoided, there are family members that have tried to get answers that have been frustrated, who have been met with a culture of being closed down, of having information restricted.”
Bury South MP Ivan Lewis also slammed ‘dreadful’ historic leadership at the trust, while Rochdale MP Simon Danczuk said that like colleagues he had been contacted by constituents about deadly failings there as recently as last summer. He described Tuesday’s debate as ‘overdue’, adding: “I do think it’s about poor leadership from Gillian Fairfield and indeed from John Saxby, her predecessor. I think they failed to lead effectively and properly.
“I’d appreciate it if the minister could outline what steps are being taken to hold failing senior managers to account at Pennine Acute and what assurances he can give that such people aren’t able to get jobs elsewhere in the NHS.”
Mr Saxby, who retired from the trust in 2013, now lives abroad and has refused to comment previously when contacted by the M.E.N.
Dr Fairfield also declined to comment when contacted at her new trust several times.
But both Mr Lewis and fellow Bury MP David Nuttall questioned whether new interim chief executive Sir David Dalton – who was drafted in from Salford Royal – could turn around the trust singlehandedly, while still overseeing Salford.