Express and Star 21 July 2016

Deloitte has been appointed to investigate the management of Royal Wolverhampton Hospitals Trust following the New Cross whistleblower’s report.

Wolverhampton’s New Cross Hospital

The audit firm’s probe was recommended as part of the damning report into which the way chief executive David Loughton treated staff who made allegations about death rates and fraud was laid bare.

An NHS Improvement spokeswoman said: “We can confirm that Deloitte have signed the contract to carry out the governance review at Royal Wolverhampton Hospitals Trust.”

Dates have not yet been confirmed.

The report found Mr Loughton to be ‘dismissive’ of the allegations by Staffordshire whistleblower Sandra Haynes-Kirkbright ahead of a key visit by a health watchdog.

She alleged that she had been hired to ‘fix’ mortality rates, and that she was suspended for refusing to co-operate.

She claimed the trust had fraudulently made money by charging for treatments it had not performed.

The 52-year-old from Stafford also raised concerns that death rates were being made to look better than they were because they were wrongly registered.

Mr Loughton has said he will not resign, and that there is no truth in Mrs Haynes-Kirkbright’s allegations.

After the report was published, Dr David Drew, a whistleblower sacked from Walsall Manor Hospital, said the Chief Executive ‘has to be finished’.

Whistleblowers Professor David Ferry and Dr Raj Mattu were similarly critical of Mr Loughton.

Last month we revealed that the Trust forked out £177,000 on a botched investigation into Mrs Haynes-Kirkbright’s claims.

Figures revealed under freedom of information laws showed Verita was paid £134,879 for producing the report, with £42,688 spent on legal fees.

Mrs Haynes-Kirkbright has been suspended on full pay from her £55,000-a-year role as a coder since 2012, and still has a disciplinary hanging over her.