Sharmila Chowdhury
By email
13 July 2015
Care Quality Commission
Health and Social Care Act 2008
Regulation 5: Fit and Proper Persons Requirement (FPPR)
Provider name: London North West Healthcare NHS Trust
Dear Sharmila
Following review of the information you submitted under Regulation 5 (Appendix A), we write now with our conclusions about whether there has been a breach of the regulation. We firstly considered whether the information you provided was of sufficient concern to mean that we should ask the relevant Trusts to review it. That decision is partly dependent on whether objective, supporting information is provided and whether this can be directly related to the directors in question.
You supplied information about three directors, all of whom were board level at the point of your referral. In the case of the information supplied about two of the directors, we came to the view that it does not demonstrate personal misconduct or mismanagement by them.
We decided that we should not therefore forward it to their current Trusts for review:
Julie Lowe: no third party evidence has been supplied to corroborate your statement that Ms Lowe was aware that consultants took cash payments for private ultrasounds undertaken within Ealing hospital and left when an FOIA was issued in relation to this
David Pratt: no third party evidence has been supplied to corroborate your statement that Mr Pratt took no action on receiving your concerns.
In the case of the information you supplied about Paul Stanton, we came to the view that this should be put to Mr Stanton’s current Trust Chair for consideration:
After contacting Mr Stanton for permission to share information with the Trust Chair, we asked the Trust to consider this information and to tell us about their processes for providing assurance that their directors are fit and proper
Care Quality Commission
Citygate
Gallowgate
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 4PA
Telephone: 03000 616161 Fax: 03000 616171
The information we subsequently received from the Trust Chair satisfied the FPPR panel, which I chaired, that the information of concern had been looked into and the Trust’s processes to comply with Regulation 5 are robust. The Trust’s processes enabled the Chair to confirm Paul Stanton’s fitness
We have also subsequently found that Paul Stanton has left the Trust. We understand that a new Chief Executive in post since April is making a number of changes. Information of concern received about an individual who is not employed as a director is not eligible for consideration under Regulation 5
In addition we considered your statement that you had been unfairly dismissed for whistleblowing in 2010, with the post subsequently made redundant. We note that, whilst the Interim Relief Hearing said there was a good chance of success for unfair dismissal, you settled out of court. This means that there is no third party evidence to corroborate an alleged unfair dismissal.
This concludes our review of the three, now two, people eligible to be considered under this regulation. We will therefore be taking no further action with regard to the three people you have named as we do not believe that a breach at the Trusts employing them is indicated.
We would like to thank you for your help in testing the application of this new regulation at this stage of early learning for all of us. We would also like to thank you for your useful insights which have helped inform the planning for the next inspection of London North West Healthcare NHS Trust later this year.
This concludes all CQC’s correspondence with you on the application of Regulation 5 to all information you supplied.
Yours sincerely
Professor Sir Mike Richards Chief Inspector of Hospitals
SHARMILA CHOWDHURY 