Call for Great Ormond Street hospital to be investigated

Minister says world-famous children’s hospital should be subject to ‘urgent investigation’ after consultants sign letter of no confidence in chief executive.

Great Ormond Street children’s hospital should be subject to an urgent investigation, an MP said yesterday, after between 40 and 50 consultants reportedly signed letters declaring they have no confidence in the chief executive, Dr Jane Collins, or the senior management team.

Lynne Featherstone, junior Home Office minister with responsibility for equality, said management must be brought to account, but she was worried that staff at the hospital had been intimidated into not speaking openly about their concerns.

“I worry that people are too scared to speak about a situation that needs urgent investigation,” said Featherstone, the Liberal Democrat MP for Hornsey and Wood Green.

“I undoubtedly will write to the secretary of state for health but part of the problem is that until it is confirmed that these consultants have signed the letter, I can’t take action. This is too important and too serious an issue not to go about it in the right way.”

The NHS Trust is a world-leader in specialist care for children with complex or life-threatening illnesses. In recent years, however, it has been rocked by a series of critical reports related to its failure to prevent the death of Baby Peter in 2007.

Last December, four senior doctors revealed that they had written to the hospital’s management team in April 2006 to warn that child safety at the clinic where Baby P was being treated was a matter for “grave concern”.

They cited a list of failings at the clinic, which was being run by Great Ormond Street. Their warnings, however, were largely ignored. One of the whistleblowers, Dr Kim Holt, the consultant identified as “the most vocal,” was removed from her job despite doing “nothing wrong” and has still not been fully reinstated.

Last month, Collins was accused by Featherstone of mounting a “spin” operation to play down the hospital’s involvement in the death of the toddler, who was on the at-risk register of Haringey social services.

Featherstone claimed Collins had misled the public about problems at the child protection clinic in Tottenham.

One doctor, Michelle Zalkin, told investigators compiling a report into the affair for NHS London, the strategic health authority for Greater London, that Great Ormond Street managers created a “very hostile environment” which became “quite unbearable”. They communicated, she claimed, largely by “shouty emails and Post-it notes”.

A team leader at the clinic, Nicola Bennett, told the investigators that she was reprimanded after voicing her concerns and told “that she should have adopted the management line”.

Another consultant at the clinic, Dr Sethu Wariyar, accused a senior manager of being “confrontational and divisive”.

Professor Trish Morris-Thompson, chief nurse at NHS London said: “The report finds no evidence that Dr Holt was bullied or to suggest that managers interfered in clinical decision making, but we accept that more could have been done to support both clinical and managerial staff in delivering the services required.”

But an increasing number of consultants at the hospital are deciding that there must be a change in leadership if the hospital is to continue giving the best possible care to sick children.

The campaign was initiated after a secret meeting at BMA House in London two weeks ago, at which 20 consultants met with two British Medical Association representatives.

The letters have been presented to Baroness Tessa Blackstone, chair of the trust, and to NHS London, both of which have the power to remove Collins and replace the management team.

“Removal of the chief executive is obviously our aim,” said one consultant who signed the letters. “It is hard to imagine that the board or NHS London could let her stay after being presented with these letters.”

The BMA has refused to comment on what it says is a “confidential internal situation”. But according to the same consultant, who was present at the meeting, a culture of fear and intimidation is rife among doctors at the hospital.

“People were nervous when the meeting first began because they had spent so long thinking they were on their own, thinking these things and they were amazed at who else was there,” the consultant said. “But when they looked around and when others started talking about their experiences, it reinforced what they had been thinking themselves and we all started to talk openly to each other.”

The vote of no confidence could dash the campaign by the hospital to gain foundation trust status. One of the Department of Health’s core conditions for any hospital seeking the elevated position is that is has strong, responsible management and “effective internal governance”.