Daily Insight: ‘Islamophobic’ accusations grow

Three board directors have heavily criticised the leaders of their trust for using “Islamophobic tropes” and “ignoring and retaliating” to concerns raised about culture and leadership.

Bradford Teaching Hospitals was last week publicly criticised by one of its own directors, Mohammed Hussain, over a “dissonance” between its espoused values and its treatment of Muslim staff and patients.

Now HSJ can reveal that Mr Hussain is one of three non-executive directors who have continued to raise serious concerns internally following an independent investigation into boardroom behaviours last September.

A letter sent in January by Mr Hussain and two other non-executives – Altaf Sadique and Sughra Nazir – said the trust’s executive leadership “has not learned the lessons” from the investigation, and they “continue to deflect, ignore and retaliate to any dissenting opinion”.

The letter, sent to senior members of the trust and West Yorkshire Integrated Care System, raised “serious conduct concerns” at Bradford Hospitals board which have “culminated in retaliatory behaviours against an NED” – including “ad hominem attacks using Islamophobic tropes” and “serious allegations of homophobia and sexism in the absence of any meaningful evidence”.

Bradford Hospitals said it is taking the concerns “very seriously” and it has commissioned an investigation, which “is being expedited as a matter of urgency”.

Are words enough?

NHS England chief executive Amanda Pritchard has added her voice to the chorus of outrage in response to alleged comments made by Frank Hester, the owner of major NHS IT supplier TPP.

Ms Pritchard said the alleged language used by Mr Hester, who has donated £10m to the Conservative Party, was “racist, sexist and violent” and were a “long way from our NHS values”.

Her comments came a week after the initial story about the alleged comments was broken by the Guardian and  raise the question of whether NHSE will be taking any action beyond mere condemnation.

There are certainly several people in the NHS – particularly in the tech space – who feel TPP should not be awarded any more contracts, although the legal position around this kind of action is dubious at best.

HSJ has asked NHSE if it intends to do or say anything more about the issue, but no response has been forthcoming.

Instead, it looks like it’s up to individual leaders in the health service to determine what constitutes an appropriate response.

Whatever your view, the lack of actual action being taken at a time when the NHS has talked the talk on tackling racism is a somewhat unfortunate look.