Letter To Nicolas Garcia Department of Health
4 December 2003
TO1041587
Nicolas Garcia
Customer Services Centre
Department of Health
Richmond House
79 Whitehall
London
SW1A 2NS
Dear Mr Garcia,
I refer to your letter dated 2nd December. Having requested from both the Secretary of State Dr Reid and the Minister of Health John Hutton that they set up an independent investigation into the events that took place at St George’s Hospital regarding the misreporting of both cancelled operations figures and waiting list figures. I am staggered to be told by you, that far from investigating my complaint Ministers have instructed you to pass on my correspondence to the actual organisation at which this wrong doing took place. This is all the more surprising given the comments made by John Hutton about he would not tolerate the misreporting of activity figures, when we both appeared on the BBC London news programme on Wednesday 12th November.
In view of your completely unsatisfactory reply, I am circulating your letter to the media and have posted a copy of it to the www.nhsexpose.co.uk website, so that a wider public can be made aware of the substance contained in ministerial promises. I shall also be sending a copy of your letter to several members of parliament who have expressed an interest in this issue.
I ask you to again bring to the attention of Dr Reid and Mr Hutton my original correspondence and request that they reconsider their decision not to hold an independent enquiry into the events that took place at St George’s and indeed in the wider NHS and can assure both you and they, that I can supply considerable written evidence showing that target figures were not properly reported.
I hope to hear from you in the near future.
Yours faithfully
Ian Perkin