North by North West: What now for The Christie?

The latest chapter in The Christie Foundation Trust’s whistleblowing saga concluded last week, with the mainstream media finally covering the story.

A long-awaited Care Quality Commission report repeated the same sort of criticisms expressed by others over the last two years – suggesting senior executives were overly focussed on the trust’s reputation, and that some staff felt unable to raise concerns internally.

Whistleblowers who sparked the review will have been disappointed by the lack of punch in the body of the report, but relatively pleased with the double downgrade to the trust’s leadership rating – which was cut from “outstanding” to “requires improvement”.

There was no obvious change of tack on The Christie’s comms response, which omitted to mention the leadership downgrade.

But lots of the report’s narrative looked to have been extremely carefully balanced and caveated by inspectors, which tends to happen when the inspected trust pushes back hard on the draft findings.

It took six months to get this report published, which hints at the difficulties that the CQC may have faced.

Christie denies trying to manipulate inspection

The inspection itself certainly proved challenging, with a former trust nurse (who is pursuing an employment tribunal case against the provider)  publicly accusing executives of trying to stage-manage the initial staff forums by holding them in the trust headquarters with senior leaders present.

The CQC confirmed it organised “additional off-site engagement sessions” as a “direct response” to staff concerns about the arrangements that had been made for the forums.

The trust said it “refutes” claims it tried to manipulate the inspection, saying staff were made aware of forums they could attend, and these were facilitated by the CQC.

Call for new leadership

Perhaps the most eye-catching section of the final report actually praised the work of three senior executives: chief nurse Janelle Yorke; medical director Neil Bayman; and chief operating officer Bernie Delahoyde.

That will have made for uncomfortable reading for CEO Roger Spencer and the rest of the board, who received “variable feedback”.

The trust also now finds itself under a growing media spotlight, with The Guardian and Telegraph both covering the CQC findings, and the BBC devoting significant coverage through its news bulletins and a feature on Newsnight. Even the Manchester Evening News, curiously silent on the story for two years, has now covered it for the first time.

This will put more pressure on Mr Spencer, who has led The Christie for around a decade.

Roger Kline, an academic and NHS workforce expert who’s been supporting some of the whistleblowers, told Newsnight the board should start looking for a new CEO. When asked whether Mr Spencer intended to stay in post, the trust did not respond.

Chair Christine Outram is stepping down at the end of her third term later this year, and the identity of her replacement will now be crucial in determining the direction of the trust.

Will her successor be comfortable with the way The Christie is being run?

Ex-CEO news

Elsewhere in the region, former Countess of Chester Hospital FT boss Susan Gilby has launched a striking tribunal claim against the trust and its chair Ian Haythornthwaite, while eyebrows were raised over the process at which former Liverpool University Hospitals FT boss Steve Warburton secured a top new post at Mersey Internal Audit Agency.