Julie Dent Chief Executive South West London Strategic Health Authority
Julie Dent is currently the Chief Executive of the South West London Strategic Health Authority. Previously she was Director of Performance Management at NHS London Regional Office. Prior to this she was Chief Executive of Ealing, Hammersmith and Hounslow FHSA and Director of Commissioning at Ealing, Hammersmith and Hounslow Health Authority. Her earlier career has all been in health sector.
I wrote to Mrs Dent on the 23rd December 2002 asking her if she had played any part in my dismissal and she replied to my letter on the 8th January 2003. In the third paragraph of that letter, Mrs Dent said neither she or the Chairman of the Strategic Health Authority had played any part in the internal NHS process that had led to my dismissal. It is interesting that Mrs Dent should make that statement because the information that subsequently became available seemed to make it clear that Mrs Dent had certainly played a part in my dismissal.
Firstly Kevin Harbottle the St George's Acting Director of Finance told me that he had been present in Ian Hamilton's office when a long telephone conversation had taken place with Julie Dent about the circumstances regarding my dismissal and particularly the way the issue surrounding the falsification of cancelled operations figures and that Mrs Dent had given Ian Hamilton advice on the impact of this serious misrepresentation could be handled.
Secondly my Member of Parliament Edward Davey spoke to Mrs Dent and she told him quite contrary to the letter that she had sent to me, that she had acted to ensure that the Trust properly followed their employment procedures. An interesting statement given that I had been dismissed without any prior warnings ever having been given and with no right of appeal. In fact my MP felt so strongly about the situation that he issued a press statement calling for Mrs Dent's resignation and the issue was widely reported in the local press. As you will see from the press statement, despite my having written to him to draw his attention to the what was going on, without arranging for any investigation into the matters that I had raised, Sir James Cochrane stated about Mrs Dent, "We have full and complete confidence in her abilities as chief executive of South West London Strategic Health Authority. We are pleased the performance of the NHS in south-west London has improved since last year." I wasn't getting an exactly fair and even handed approach from the Chairman of the Health Authority was I?
I wrote again to Mrs Dent on the 21st January to point out to Mrs Dent, that I believed that she and her Finance Director James McAulliffe had played a part in my dismissal and her reply dated 29th January confirmed that this was the case, as when confronted with the evidence she admitted that she had discussed with Ian Hamilton the issues I had raised in relation to the cancelled operations issue and that she had been kept informed of the Trust's subsequent actions.
Further evidence about Mrs Dent's involvement in my dismissal also came out during my Employment Tribunal Hearing. In giving his evidence under oath Ian Hamilton said, "Julie Dent, then Director of Performance Management, London Region, also raised concerns with me. These were similar to those raised by John Bacon, that Ian Perkin was not seen as a corporate player. Subsequently, Julie Dent was appointed as Chief Executive of the South West London Strategic Health Authority. Following her appointment she established a process to appoint a new Finance Director for the Strategic Health Authority and interviewed a wide range of finance candidates (another untrue statement as the job was ring fenced and only the three existing health authority Finance Directors were interviewed, Melvyn Esterman, Jim McAulliffe and Alan Ritchie). Julie Dent told me that she had been surprised at the reaction of candidates for the post who had expressed considerable misgivings at the prospect of working with the Trust's Finance Department and, in particular Mr Perkin. She also informed me that other external stakeholders, across the local PCT's had also commented on how difficult it was to work with Mr Perkin. These were brought to my notice, simply as appropriate intelligence sharing between Chief Executives". Hardly an unbiased statement from the Chief Executive of the Strategic Health Authority who claims she played no part in my dismissal and all the more staggering because I had never prior to my Employment Tribunal case ever received any complaints from Mrs Dent or anyone else about my performance as St George's Finance Director. Indeed in my whole career in the NHS I think I can only recall having met Mrs Dent briefly on no more than two occasions and she was certainly not in a position to make any reasonable judgement about my performance as Finance Director, although according to Ian Hamilton's evidence this did not seem to inhibit her from airing her unsubstantiated opinions about me.
The final piece of evidence which demonstrates Mrs Dent's active role in my dismissal was provided by the Chairman of the Trust Miss McLoughlin. When the Employment Tribunal Chairman ordered the Trust to disclose in the Employment Court the details of the KPMG report that had been undertaken to look at the financial management of the Trust. In the KPMG notes of the interview that they conducted with Miss Mcloughlin on the 29th July. Miss Mcloughlin stated that they were, "Exploring the possibility of him being moved elsewhere". If this was what was happening then those discussions had to be taking place with the Strategic Health Authority and its Chief Executive Mrs Julie Dent. As my MP Edward Davey said, "South West London Health Authority was only set up last April, but it's clear they came with a clear agenda to intimidate local health managers and staff into submission. In my constituents case, his only crime was to tell the truth regarding the finances and targets at St George's Hospital Tooting. NHS bureaucrats couldn't tell take the truth. So we won't put up with them."