NHS ‘sex scandal’ whistleblower chief was ‘victim of witch-hunt’

THE NHS’S longest-serving chief executive, sacked for gross misconduct, has claimed he was dismissed for suspending senior consultants who used hospital premises to have sex.

Sir Leonard Fenwick, who joined Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in 1965, told BBC Look North: “I have referred to this as an orchestrated witch-hunt and there is a great deal of evidence to demonstrate that throughout 2016 and into 2017 there has been pressure on me to retire or strike an arrangement to leave the organisation. My face doesn’t fit and 2016 was a year when I did step across the board in one or two areas, in particular to the behaviour of senior staff.” He was asked: “This is the sex scandal?” and replied: “Indeed it is.”

In March, sources at the hospital told The Daily Telegraph that Sir Leonard was forced out of his job after he exposed a sex ring involving two married consultants at the Royal Victoria Infirmary who were said to have arranged illicit trysts during work hours using codewords such as “cappuccino”.

Sir Leonard had moved to suspend the two consultants but the trust decided the pair could keep their jobs following a 20-minute disciplinary hearing, a source told The Telegraph.

Sir Leonard was put on gardening leave in January and when news of the sex ring went public, the trust “strongly refuted” that the matters were linked.

The trust said in a statement yesterday that “allegations relating to inappropriate behaviour, use of resources and a range of governance issues” had been proven against Sir Leonard. A leaked letter to Kingsley Smith, the trust’s chairman, claimed that Sir Leonard had bullied and abused staff in public, “interrogated” staff emails and made inappropriate comments about a colleague’s daughter.

The trust said the decision to dismiss Sir Leonard “was not taken lightly, but made after very careful, lengthy and detailed consideration”.