Hunt lauded chief of scandal-hit hospital

Chancellor praised the ‘sensational job’ done by boss of NHS trust at centre of police probe over deaths

THE boss of a scandal-hit hospital at the centre of a major police investigation was lauded by Jeremy Hunt, the Chancellor, as having done a “sensational job” of keeping patients safe. Dame Marianne Griffiths stepped down as chief executive of University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust in 2022.

Police are investigating more than 100 cases of alleged negligence in the latter years of her tenure, after allegations of a widespread cover-up and the persecution of whistleblowers.

Despite this, Dame Marianne has gone on to secure top-level NHS work.

While in charge at the trust, she was praised for improving standards of patient safety by Mr Hunt, who was health secretary from 2012 to 2018 and subsequently led the Commons’ health and social care select committee.

Upon her retirement from the trust, Mr Hunt said: “Marianne did an absolutely sensational job of putting together the best-run, safest, highest-quality care that I encountered anywhere in the NHS.

“Thousands and thousands of patients benefited because of your inspirational leadership.”

Mr Hunt has also previously shared a platform with Dame Marianne, who received her Damehood in 2020, on the subject of patient safety. His 2022 commendation is still displayed prominently on the trust’s website.

Originally a nurse, in 2018, Dame Marianne became the first woman to be named best chief executive in the NHS at the Health Service Journal awards.

However, the trust’s reputation as a centre for good practice and that of its flagship hospital, the Royal Sussex in Brighton, now lie in tatters.

Last year, the Care Quality Commission rated the trust “inadequate”, with complaints by staff of “autocratic and bureaucratic” management, and “little or no improvement in surgery” since a previous inspection in 2021.

It is also facing cases in an employment tribunal by two whistleblowers who claim that a group of senior hospital consultants suppressed warnings about patient safety for years.

Mansoor Foroughi, a leading consultant neurosurgeon, and Krishna Singh, a general surgeon, have claimed that they told Dame Marianne, as well as her chief medical officer, that patients were dying unnecessarily almost five years before police became involved last May.

University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust told the tribunal that Mr Foroughi’s complaints were made in bad faith to further his own career, and that it had followed due process dismissing him and Mr Singh.

The tribunal has been halted pending police investigation and both claimants stand by their claims.

The Telegraph has also revealed claims that significant numbers of unregistered consultants were allowed to operate on patients, with Sussex taking advantage of looser rules for foundation trusts, which allow doctors who have not completed the consultant qualification process to act in the role.

This is understood to form part of a Sussex Police investigation into at least 105 cases of alleged medical negligence.

Dame Marianne reportedly earned £3.7 million between 2009 and 2022, accruing a pension pot of almost £1.3million. Although concerns about the treatment of patients at Sussex were already emerging, in August 2022 Dame Marianne was appointed by NHS England to lead its independent review of failings at North East Ambulance Service, which was facing similar allegations of cover-ups and the mistreatment of whistleblowers, after several deaths.

The review found considerable cultural and behavioural issues that contributed to the failings.

However, she concluded that the ambulance service’s current leadership were the right people to bring about reform. NHS England would not disclose what she was paid for conducting the review.

A senior clinician at the Royal Sussex, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: “A lot of us feel very strongly that she shouldn’t play any further role in the NHS given what’s happened here.”

The police investigation at the Royal Sussex is one of the most significant criminal investigations into an NHS institution in recent decades.

A major focus of Mr Hunt’s six years as health secretary was patient safety and making it easier for staff to speak up. Some reforms were introduced.

However, as the high volume of doctors’ unfair dismissal claims being heard by employment tribunals show, whistleblowers are still routinely sidelined and disciplined after speaking up.

Many are also referred by their trust, or former trust, to the General Medical Council for professional misconduct allegations, imperilling their licence to practise. This happened in the case of Mr Foroughi, who initially raised concerns about 19 deaths and 23 cases of serious harm.

An NHS spokesman said: “NHS England commissioned Dame Marianne Griffiths to lead the review into North East Ambulance Service following a process to identify a person with relevant NHS experience and who had not worked in the local area.”

Dame Marianne has made no public statements since the the investigation was announced.

‘A lot of us feel strongly that she shouldn’t play any further role in the NHS given what’s happened’