NHS probe over Savile hospitals

HEALTH chiefs yesterday belatedly announced an inquiry into Jimmy Savile’s reign of abuse at three NHS hospitals.

But it will be run by the Department of Health itself, raising fears it cannot be truly independent.

Former barrister Kate Lampard will oversee the investigation to provide ‘independent oversight’, Downing Street pledged.

It will examine why the paedophile presenter was given the keys to Broadmoor mental hospital, a bedroom at Stoke Mandeville and free rein at Leeds General Infirmary.

He allegedly raped and molested young victims for decades without anyone stopping him.

There are suspicions a blind eye was turned to the abuse because the hospitals reaped millions of pounds through Savile’s fundraising.

Labour is still calling for a full independent inquiry into the scandal.

Deputy leader Harriet Harman said: ‘I think what we need to do is get to the truth.

‘Clearly something terrible went on for many years across a number of institutions and I think we need to learn the lessons.’

A Department of Health spokesman said: ‘[Kate Lampard] will provide oversight of the Stoke Mandeville, Leeds General Infirmary and Broadmoor inquiries as well as the Department of Health’s inquiries into the appointment and role Savile held at Broadmoor Hospital.

‘All relevant information from these inquiries will be passed to the police.’

Unlike the BBC, which has issued several grovelling apologies, none of the hospitals has yet said sorry for the abuse.

Savile, who raised £40million for the hospital in his lifetime, boasted that he ‘lived’ in a bedroom managers had given him at Stoke Mandeville, Buckinghamshire, and said he could do as he pleased.

Tory MP Rob Wilson, an aide to the Health Secretary, has questioned whether Savile’s fundraising ‘made him untouchable’ at the hospital. He demanded an independent inquiry ‘so we understand who knew what and when they knew it’.

Peter Saunders, of the National Association for People Abused in Childhood, said: ‘We have received many calls from people abused at the hospitals where Jimmy Savile was held up as some sort of saint.

‘The inquiry must be independent and it must put the victims at the very heart of it.’