Hospital chief in mask row quit after watchdog’s report
A HOSPITAL chief who blamed staff for a Covid-19 outbreak quit days after inspectors found that patients and medics were being put at risk by inadequate measures to prevent the spread of the virus.
Sarah Tedford resigned as chief executive of Hillingdon hospital, in Boris Johnson’s constituency, a week after the Care Quality Commission issued a formal warning notice demanding urgent action to improve “infection control practices”. Mrs Tedford had earlier been pictured in the hospital without a mask, while sitting next to a sign that stated: “You must wear a face covering during your time in hospital.”
The Sunday Telegraph understands that the CQC made an unannounced visit to the hospital shortly after it emerged that a Covid-19 outbreak resulted in 70 staff needing to self-isolate and a partial shutdown of the A&E unit.
The regulator is preparing to publish its findings this week, after issuing a notice under section 31 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008, which allows the body to demand urgent changes where failing to do so could leave people “exposed to the risk of harm”. Last night Nigel Acheson, the CQC’s deputy chief inspector of hospitals, confirmed that it had “identified concerns regarding the safety of patients and staff ”.
Following an initial outbreak of Covid-19 among staff, Mrs Tedford sent out a rebuke by email on July 3, warning that “some of us are not demonstrating the behaviour we should be”.
Five days later, the west London hospital closed to emergency admissions and the number of staff isolating due to the outbreak reached 70.
However on July 2, a day before Mrs Tedford’s email, a photograph posted on Hillingdon hospital’s Facebook page showed the then chief executive and a colleague without face masks.
It later emerged that the source of the outbreak was thought to have been a training event held on June 30.
A nurse who had unknowingly contracted the virus was believed to have attended the presentation and unwittingly infected 16 others.
The CQC is understood to have made an unannounced visit to the hospital on August 4, following reports of the outbreak.
Mrs Tedford could not be reached for comment on the CQC intervention.