Bullying ‘led 999 staff to attempt suicide’
DESPERATE 999 call handlers attempted suicide amid an “endemic culture of bullying” at a scandal-hit ambulance service intent on hitting targets, leaked reports state.
The reports describe a “culture of fear” in an NHS trust which saw employees subjected to repeated abuse and harassment. In the documents, the then head of the trust is accused of sleeping with young female staff and running a “boys’ club” which protected staff who fiddled figures, and “trashed” the reputations of whistleblowers. The dossier reveals at least two alleged suicide attempts by female victims of bullying at South East Coast Ambulance trust, while a third allegedly contemplated crashing her car in order to escape the abuse.
Several claimed they were left under such pressure they could not concentrate on emergency calls, impairing their responses to the public.
The trust’s response times for “lifethreatening” calls are the worst in the country, after secret policies to “stop the clock” and falsely record responses were uncovered.
The leaked documents describe a culture of “favouritism and nepotism” at the trust’s operations centre, in Coxheath, Kent, with more concern about “targets and figures than patient care”.
Female emergency call handlers were allegedly attacked as “f------ c----”, while those approaching 40 were told “the oldies have to go in the end”, the documents state.
Senior managers are accused of playing “psychological games” with more junior staff, calling them names, threatening them with the sack, accusing some of affairs and subjecting others to anonymous abuse down the
phone. Paul Sutton, head of the trust, resigned last year following an investigation by The Daily Telegraph into a covert operation which put lives at risk by automatically downgrading thousands of life-threatening calls.
The new reports reveal that he was among four board members at the trust found responsible for “bullying and victimisation” of a female executive.
A bullying case against Mr Sutton, who now works for Public Health England, was upheld by an independent investigation, as were two claims of bullying against the trust’s current chief executive, Geraint Davies.
Evidence by Francesca Okosi, director of workforce transformation at the trust, states: “Two female members of staff tried to commit suicide because of criticisms, threats of disciplinary, audit and capability, photography of their clothing and being called ‘f-----c----’.”
The resulting investigation, detailed in a second report, dated last April, describes an “endemic culture of bullying and harassment” in the control room.
In a statement, Mr Sutton said: “I stand by my record as chief executive of SECAmb, and I refute the wholly unsubstantiated allegations concerning my personal conduct.”
A spokesman for the trust said: “In so far as any of these anonymous allegations relate to outstanding matters, we are in discussion with NHS Improvement to determine how best they should be investigated and addressed.”