- Former West Suffolk boss remains on full pay until September 2022
- News comes as pressure on chair to stand down intensifies
- Senior figures say chair’s position is “untenable”
- Trust’s interim chief says scathing review made him feel “angry, disappointed and embarrassed”
The former hospital chief executive who stood down shortly before a review slammed his organisation’s ‘flawed, intimidating’ hunt for a whistleblower will continue to be employed by the trust on an annual remuneration package worth £270,000 until September 2022, HSJ has learned.
West Suffolk Foundation Trust said Steve Dunn, who stood down in August, will remain an employee on full pay for his 12-month notice period. During this time, as previously reported by HSJ, he is on secondment at the Nuffield Trust think tank.
The trust’s last full set of accounts, for 2020-21, said Mr Dunn was paid a salary of between £185,000 and £190,000, and had a total remuneration package including pension-related benefits worth between £270,000 and £275,000.
Full details of the arrangement further intensifies the mounting pressure on trust chair Sheila Childerhouse, who was widely criticised by the review. Several senior NHS figures, inside and outside the trust, told HSJ her position was “untenable”.
Pressure on the chair was further compounded by the trust’s interim CEO Craig Black today admitting that reading the review made him feel “angry, disappointed [and] embarrassed”.
He told the trust’s board meeting this morning: “It’s fair to say there were a whole mix of emotions when I read it. It is a really hard read. I was angry, I was disappointed. I was embarrassed. It doesn’t reflect the organisation I thought I worked in, or I want to work in.”
He said that the review provided a “definitive version of events [of which there is] no questioning”. He said the whistleblowers in the report, referred only to as Doctor C and Doctor E, “have been completely vindicated… I owe them an apology and the organisation owes them an apology”.
The 226-page review, led by The Christie Foundation Trust chair Christine Outram, said Ms Childerhouse was one of several senior figures aware of plans to use finger printing and handwriting analysis to try to hunt down a whistleblower.
She also wrongly passed on an email about concerns raised to her “in confidence” by a staff member directly to the chief executive without seeking permission, the review said.
As well as Mr Dunn, other board members, including the medical director and chief operating officer, involved in the whistleblower hunt have chosen to stand down. Although Ms Childerhouse has said she owed the whistleblowers an apology too, the chair has given no indication she is considering her position.
Dr Patricia Mills, one of the West Suffolk whistleblowers, today gave an interview to the Guardian. She told the paper “Many consultants from all specialities feel the chair’s position has become really untenable.”
The Nuffield Trust confirmed the arrangement governing Mr Dunn’s secondment remained in place despite the review’s findings.
It said in a statement: “[The] review highlights a number of issues of serious concern at [WSFT]. The findings of the report are stark and lessons must be learned.
“Dr Dunn is on a year’s secondment from West Suffolk to the Nuffield Trust. He has accepted the failings and shortcomings around the handling of events leading up to and surrounding the whistleblowing, stepping down as chief executive of West Suffolk in July.
“Dr Dunn is not in the employment of the Nuffield Trust. He is working in a non-managerial capacity for us on specific research projects, including on infection prevention and control for the new hospital building programme post-pandemic.
“The Nuffield Trust’s stated objectives are to marshal the evidence for better healthcare. All our research – including the hospital improvement programme project – is geared to this end. We believe Dr Dunn has valuable experience to add to the projects that the Nuffield Trust conducts in this area.”
19 Readers' comments