Doctor criticised in hyponatraemia probe paid £500k merit money
Parents’ anger as details of Clinical Excellence Award are revealed
A DOCTOR who was heavily criticised by an inquiry into the deaths of five children in Northern Ireland hospitals has been handed almost £550,000 for his outstanding contribution to the NHS, the Belfast Telegraph can reveal.
Since 2001, Dr Robert Taylor has received a £31,959 distinction and meritorious service award each year, through the Clinical Excellence Award (CEA) scheme, in addition to his National Health Service salary.
Dr Taylor was the anaesthetist in charge during a kidney transplant on four-year-old Adam Strain, who died from hyponatraemia following the surgery in 1995.
Hyponatraemia Inquiry chairman John O’Hara said Dr Taylor’s management of Adam’s fluids had “defied understanding” and he “made fatal errors in his treatment of Adam”.
Meanwhile, paediatrician Dr Heather Steen has been getting an annual CEA payment of £8,871 since 2008. Dr Steen (left) was involved in the care of Claire Roberts, who was nine when she died from hyponatraemia in 1996.
Mr O’Hara said that from the evidence presented to him during the inquiry, he was “persuaded that a ‘cover up’ was attempted by Dr Steen”.
DOCTORS criticised in a review into the deaths of five children in Northern Ireland hospitals are getting payments for outstanding contributions to the NHS, it can be revealed.
Dr Robert Taylor, who was heavily criticised in the Hyponatraemia Inquiry report, has received almost £550,000 through the Clinical Excellence Award (CEA) scheme since 2001.
The Department of Health has confirmed that paediatric anaesthetist Dr Taylor is paid a £31,959 distinction and meritorious service award each year, in addition to his NHS salary.
Only 10 hospital doctors in Northern Ireland receive such an award. CEAs are permanent payments, made every year until retirement, and are pensionable.
Dr Taylor was the anaesthetist in charge during a kidney transplant on four-year-old Adam Strain who died from hyponatraemia following the surgery in 1995.
Meanwhile, paediatrician Dr Heather Steen has been getting an annual payment of £8,871 under the CEA programme since 2008, according to the Department of Health. Dr Steen was involved in the care of Claire Roberts, who was nine-years-old when she died from hyponatraemia at the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children in 1996.
The parents of both children have expressed their shock and disgust at the latest development — emerging three months after chair of the Hyponatraemia Inquiry, John O’Hara QC, published his damning report.
Hyponatraemia occurs when there is a shortage of sodium in the bloodstream and can be caused as a result of receiving excess fluid. In his report, Mr O’Hara said: “Dr Taylor’s man- agement of Adam’s fluids before and during surgery defied understanding.
“In his oral evidence, Dr Taylor accepted he could not understand it either, nor could he explain or justify what he did or how he subsequently defended it.
“I heard a lot of evidence from Dr Taylor but do not believe I was told the full story.
“Dr Taylor offered no insight into why he did what he did during Adam’s transplant… despite, or perhaps because, he provided so much evidence, Dr Taylor managed to keep his own thought processes obscure. Even though he now accepts what he did, he makes no attempt to explain it.
“Dr Taylor made fatal errors in his treatment of Adam. I accept this was most probably uncharacteristic and do not query his usual competence.
“However, and over and above the hurt inflicted on Adam’s family by death, Dr Taylor caused significant additional pain by acting as he did to avoid his own responsibility.”
Adam’s mum, Debra Slavin, said: “I thought that after the inquiry I would have answers and know what happened in that operating theatre, but I still don’t know what happened in the last two hours of my son’s life.
“I will go to my grave not knowing what really happened to Adam and that is so difficult to accept.”
Claire Roberts’ parents, Alan and Jennifer, have also hit out. They said: “As the parents of Claire Roberts we have been asking for openness, transparency and honesty from the Belfast Trust for the past 21 years regarding how and why our daughter died in the Royal Belfast Hospital.
“Claire’s death was wholly avoidable and totally preventable, and since the publication of the inquiry report in January we have been asking the Department of Health and the Belfast Trust to take definitive and immediate action against the doctors responsible for and involved in our daughter’s death.
“To date we have had very little success.” Mr and Mrs Roberts and Mrs Slavin said they intend to raise the matter with the Department of Health’s permanent secretary.
I will go to my grave not knowing what really happened to Adam and that is difficult to accept
In his findings, Mr O’Hara referred to Dr Steen’s actions alongside another doctor before and after Claire’s death.
He said that neither “addressed Claire’s wholly unexpected deterioration from admission to collapse and both ignored the need to fully understand the mechanism whereby hyponatraemia might have developed”.
He added: “They seemingly failed to note or perhaps ignored the failings in the fluid therapy and the failing to repeat the blood test, either of which should have prompted referral to the coroner.”
He said the decision by Dr Steen (left) and Dr Webb not to refer Claire’s death to the coroner was wrong.
“Their decision was a breach of both statutory obligation and professional duty,” he said. “It was, even by the standards of 1996, a gross error of judgment.
“Their reasons were hopelessly inadequate, their decision reached without proper reflection, and their evidence unconvincing.”
Mr O’Hara also said, from the evidence presented to him during the inquiry, he was “persuaded that a ‘cover up’ was attempted by Dr Steen”.
The Department of Health said it cannot comment on individual employees’ circumstances.