Chiefs ‘lacked empathy’ over QE doctor suicide
Damning report into ‘corrosive’ culture after staff raised fears
SENIOR leaders from Birmingham’s biggest hospital trust failed to attend the funeral of junior doctor Vaishnavi Kumar following her tragic suicide – and did not meet the family until weeks later, a damning report has revealed.
The Bewick-led rapid review, published on Tuesday, into the culture and leadership at University Hospitals Birmingham found multiple failures and “clear evidence” of entrenched, serious failings that “require serious attention”.
These failings were illustrated by the handling of the 35-year-old’s sudden death.
There was “considerable unrest and indeed anger” over the circumstances of the death – not the first by suicide among Trust medics – and there was “disappointment and anger” at the lack of senior representation at Dr Kumar’s funeral, the report’s authors found.
The corporate response to her death was seen by some as “hardhearted, lacking empathy and representative of callous senior leaders”, said the report, highlighting emails and other communications sent to doctors and all staff.
The trust had highlighted the range of mental health and well being support available and encouraged staff to discuss the tragedy but did not follow through “with empathy”.
The trust’s interim chief executive Jonathan Brotherton said the trust had “reflected hard” since about the behaviour that resulted.
The family of Dr Kumar had since been gracious in agreeing to work alongside the trust, he said.
The review said this had been “an opportunity lost” for trust leaders to show what staff meant, with Dr Kumar’s family “kept at arm’s length”, said the report.
The family later said they had no opportunity for a face to face meeting, and were not contacted directly by senior managers.
One senior leader was so oblivious about what had happened that she emailed the young doctor 26 days
It’s clear colleagues don’t believe the trust handled her death in any way that was empathetic or appropriate. Jonathan Brotherton
after her death to ask why she was removed from her post and if she was still being paid.
The report adds that “lessons are being learned” and some policies updated as a result, but states what is needed is “a fundamental shift in the way an organisation demonstrably cares about its staff as people.”
“It does not need a policy to inform senior and experienced staff how to offer humane and personal responses to a rare catastrophic event,” said the report.
The “dignified complaint” later sent to the Trust by Dr Kumar’s father “emphasises the gap between his perception of the Trust as his daughter’s employer and their perception of their response and management of this tragedy.”
Dame Yve Buckland, new interim chair of the trust, has made “very considerable progress” in reaching out and working with Dr Kumar’s father to make amends for the previous insensitive handling of this tragic event and to engage with him to develop constructive ways forward, the report added.
Dr Kumar’s death and its aftermath was among a series of issues subject to the six week rapid review led by Prof Mike Bewick, ordered after a damning series of allegations were aired on BBC Newsnight about the Trust.
Interim chief executive Jonathan Brotherton said: “What happened was tragic beyond words. Dr Kumar was a hugely respected doctor, an all round nice person, and it’s clear colleagues don’t believe the trust handled her death in any way that was empathetic or appropriate. We’ve really dug deep on that and looked at what we did do, what we should have done and, perish the thought, what we would do in the future should it ever happen again.”
The parents of Dr Kumar, at the time working at Birmingham Queen Elizabeth Hospital, revealed her final words in a bid to help other junior medics.
Dr Vaishnavi Kumar took her own life after feeling “belittled” at work.
The doctor, known as Vaish, who previously told how the Covid pandemic had “taken its toll”, took a lethal cocktail of medication. She waited over three hours to call for an ambulance and later died at City Hospital on June 22, last year, her inquest was told in November.
In a tragic last letter she wrote: “I am sorry mum, I can blame the whole thing on the QEH.”
Her dad Dr Ravi Kumar said he believed the QE had “destroyed” his daughter.
“She must have gone through a huge amount of bullying and stress otherwise she is not the girl who would have done this.”