Mark Metcalf - November 2nd 2005
Whilst Leeds Mental Health NHS Teaching Trust have been forced to lift their
suspension of health and safety rep Paul Cockcroft they have now suspended Fire
Officer Chris Hindle.
Hindle had become increasingly frustrated at senior management’s refusal to act on his 2003 verbal comments and 2004 written fire report that three new mental health units built under PFI were “not suitable for people with mental health problems”.
The Trust later wasted a sum, strongly rumoured to be close to £40,000, commissioning its’ own three report’s that simply confirmed Hindle’s opinions.
The then Chief Executive, Mike Atkins and Deputy Chief Executive Nigel Fenny, both left just prior to the release of the three reports
Hindle finally reached breaking point when he discovered that management had not passed on a speaking invitation from Leeds City Council Scrutiny Committee to him. After a disagreement with management he was quickly suspended.
Massive rise in management posts
If Hindle is leaving by the back door plenty more are coming through the front as the problems being faced by the NHS as a whole are encapsulated in Leeds.
Three years ago Leeds Community and Mental Health NHS Trust found itself being fragmented into a whole series of organisational hierarchies. Five new Primary Care Trust’s were established along with Leeds Mental Health Trust. Each of these appointed their own Chief Executive’s along with a separate board of Directors.
New premises to house their Headquarters and staff have had to be found, a very expensive proposition in a rapidly developing city such as Leeds.
The numbers employed have rocketed. Leeds Community and Mental Health Trust employed 3,500 people; the 6 new bodies employ 6,000.
An anonymous NHS worker who was involved in the induction process has said, “I estimate that less than 30% of new starters have been clinical staff”.
Billions of £’s wasted nationally
For Leeds read any City in Britain. Billions has been wasted. And more waste is on its way with news that employees of the various 5 PCT’s being told only last week by members of senior management that they are to be merged into one. [*]
Meanwhile Leeds Mental Health Trust decamped from Highroyds Mental Health Trust on the outskirts of Bradford/Leeds three years ago into the controversial new buildings.
Some cynics might question the therapeutic value of moving patients, many of who are elderly, and in many more cases suffering from drug-related problems into the most deprived area of the inner city from the semi-rural and private grounds of what was Highroyd Hospital.
Indeed in the past two years 9 patients have wandered out of the new PFI buildings and committed suicide. This may be why it was rumoured that the Police and the CPS were considering taking legal action against the Trust to enforce a duty of care to patients. [1]
One patient who committed suicide lay in a Ward toilet for 4 days before being discovered. Recently a patient who left the ward at Seacroft started a fire in an adjacent ward causing over £1 million pound’s damage. Fortunately, no one was killed.
If by suspending Cockcroft and now Hindle the Leeds Mental Health Teaching Trust hoped to put a stop to the controversy they appear to have failed.
Led by Independent Councillor Robert Finnigan an unusual coalition of Tories, Liberals and Independents forced through a motion at the Leeds City Council meeting on November 1st calling for a public enquiry into events at the new PFI buildings. Three Labour Councillors voted against whilst the rest abstained.
After Finnegan was later interviewed on BBC Radio Leeds the Trust rang the radio station saying they were considering suing them after they failed to ask for the Trust’s comments.
This one is likely to run and run.
1. Comments made by Peter McGinnis, wards nursing director at a meeting earlier
this year.
[*] See statements made by Patricia
Hewitt, Secretary for State for the Department of Health, during a House of
Commons debate on Tuesday October 25th 2005 in which she said “The NHS
has made excellent progress in improving hospitals. We now need to focus on
community services and ensure that primary care trusts deliver the community
health care services that patients want and need. We have therefore asked health
authorities and PCTs to review their structure and come forward with proposals
for change where that is needed”.