Trust signs 10-year deal despite ‘deplorable’ comments by firm’s CEO

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Sussex Partnership FT is first to sign new contract with TPP after chief executive’s racism controversy

An IT firm whose CEO was caught making racist and misogynistic comments has won a significant new NHS contract with a trust that stated it had “not taken this decision lightly”.

Sussex Partnership Foundation Trust confirmed it would be awarding a contract for its new electronic patient record to The Phoenix Partnership.

It is the first known NHS contract awarded to TPP since its owner and founder Frank Hester was reported to have made remarks about Labour MP Diane Abbott and an unnamed female executive at a meeting in 2019.

In a joint letter issued today (Friday), the trust’s chair and chief executive said TPP’s SystmOne platform was its “preferred option” because: “There isn’t another electronic patient record available that has the potential to deliver such a positive impact upon the work that we do.”

Chair Sean Duggan and CEO Jane Padmore said: “As a board, we have been reviewing this decision and discussing it with our partners in light of the reportedly racist, misogynist comments made by TPP’s CEO, Frank Hester, which became public earlier this year.

“Having joined NHS partners in communicating our concern about these comments directly to TPP, it was important to take stock…

“We have taken the difficult decision to proceed with SystmOne. We have done so after carefully considering the need for an EPR system which supports patient safety and high-quality clinical care. It is critical for service delivery that we implement a new solution as quickly as possible, now the support for [previous system] Carenotes has finished… There would be a risk to patient safety if we did not proceed.”

Their letter added: “We have not taken this decision lightly. In doing so we have had to weigh up our duty to provide safe patient care with the ethics of working with an organisation whose CEO has reportedly made deplorable comments which are completely out of line with our own values.”

After the news of Mr Hester’s comments broke in March, NHS England said it was “exploring” relationships between the health service and TPP, in a personal intervention by chief executive Amanda Pritchard.

She said his comments were “racist, sexist and violent” and a long way from “our NHS values”, and later that she was “conscious this isn’t just about signalling” but “it’s about doing the real work”. Neither NHSE or TPP had responded to HSJ about the new contract award as this article was published.

Wes Streeting, then shadow health and social care secretary, also said at the time: “This is utterly revolting, racist, and inciteful language. It has no place in our politics and public life.”

Sussex Partnership FT would not confirm the length or value of the contract, but HSJ understands it is for 10 years.

The trust is replacing its current Carenotes EPR software, supplied by the firm Advanced. Advanced was the victim of a cyber attack in 2022, and it took many months for some customers to have systems restored.

TPP’s latest annual accounts, for 2023, show a profit after tax of £19.8m on a turnover of £80.5m. The firm supplies some software to trusts, but its main business is as one of the two dominant suppliers of IT systems to England’s GP practices.

The Guardian reported Mr Hester told a staff member that seeing Ms Abbott on TV made you “want to hate all Black women”.

At the time, a statement from TPP to The Guardian said Mr Hester “accepts that he was rude about Diane Abbott in a private meeting several years ago but his criticism had nothing to do with her gender nor colour of skin”. The statement said Mr Hester abhorred racism, “not least because he experienced it as the child of Irish immigrants in the 1970s”.

The statement added: “He rang Diane Abbott twice… to try to apologise directly for the hurt he has caused her, and is deeply sorry for his remarks. He wishes to make it clear that he regards racism as a poison which has no place in public life.”

His lawyers told The Guardian that “the company fostered a diverse and inclusive workplace, with a significant proportion of staff from minority ethnic backgrounds, and that Hester’s comments had been distorted and taken out of context, and were not a true or accurate characterisation of the company or Hester”, according to the newspaper.