John Hutton MP Minister For Health
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On Wednesday 12th November the London Evening Standard carried a story about the misreporting of outpatient waiting list figures at St George's Healthcare NHS Trust in February 2001. Following this story BBC London carried a piece in their evening news bulletins in which I explained how when, St George's had discovered that they had been under recording the number of patients on the Out Patient Waiting List they with the agreement of the NHS London Regional Office instead of honestly stating that they had made a mistake and reporting the true waiting list figures, set about trying to misreport the figures over a long period of time, while they tried to drip feed the correct figures into the reports they made to the NHS so that hopefully no one would notice that the figures had previously been under reported. This attempted deception was of course carried out just a few months before I reported the fraudulent reporting of the cancelled operations figures by the same individuals.
In their news report Kurt Barling of the BBC interviewed the Minister of State for Health John Hutton MP, who made the clear and unequivocal statement that the misreporting of figures to achieve government targets would not be allowed in the NHS. I have therefore taken John Hutton at his word and sent him an e-mail pointing out, that despite the many requests I have made to Sir Nigel Crisp to set up an independent inquiry as to what went on at St George's and indeed the wider NHS I have not had a satisfactory response to my letters and e-mails.
In the end the I received a reply on behalf of Ministers which made it clear that an independent investigation will not be conducted into the matters of which I have documented evidence to show that wrong-doing has taken place at senior level within the NHS. Ministers make public statements that the NHS is open and accountable yet the reality is, as my case demonstrates, that when confronted with a problem any inquirey is kept in house so that any wrong doing that is uncovered can be carefully controlled. What I would like to know is if the NHS has nothing to hide why ministers are so fearful of independent inquiries? The Wandsworth Borough News in their November 14th edition covered one of the issues that I felt should be independently investigated and which Ministers felt should not. Despite the ministers fine words on television, the only reply I received to my e-mail of the 14th November is a letter dated 2nd December from Nicolas Carcia of the Customer Services Centre. What is the response to my request that the Minister uses his authority to ensure that an independent investigation is now put in place to examine the issues that I have raised about what went on at St George's? The letter confirms that my correspondence has been sent on to the very organisation whose behaviour I have been complaining about. Does the Minister seriously consider that this action on his part is consistent with his television statement that he will not tolerate the misreporting of figures to achieve government targets. I leave you to make your own judgement about the Ministers credibility when you contrast his words with his actions.
I replied to Nicolas Carcia's letter immediately, pointing out that it was unreasonable not to have an independent inquiry into the substantial written evidence that I can provide to substantiate the fact that waiting list targets have been manipulated. However, this has clearly had no impact at all on Ministers determined to keep any investigation "In House", as the further letter I received from Nicolas Carcia dated 17th December makes crystal clear, John Reid, John Hutton and Sir Nigel Crisp are only prepared to allow me to submit evidence to David Sissling the Chief Executive of the Leicestershire, Northamptonshire and Rutland Strategic Health Authority. Surely given the view of managers in the service, as evidenced by the Jon Sudworth's BBC Television report Jon Sudworth's BBC Television report, and the BBC website report , that in achieving government targets, bullying and intimidation within the NHS is widespread with the pressure coming from the top level. Having an inquiry chaired by an independent QC is the only way the public can be truly reassured that the reporting of clinical activity against government targets is being conducted with honesty and integrity. I am sure you can draw your own conclusions as to why Ministers and Sir Nigel Crisp are so determined that despite the mass of evidence that there is a problem, they will not allow an independent inquiry to take place and are anxious that the only review that takes place is internal to the NHS thereby ensuring that they can control the publication of its findings. Click here if you would like to know more about the Terms of Reference that have been set for the Sissling Inquirey and how the NHS have already set ground rules that will make sure that they can control the publication of the Inquiry's findings.