NHS Highland's management 'failure' hurt trust says MP
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A SENIOR Highland politician has said the shock resignation of former NHS Highland chairman David Alston last week will give the health board a chance to correct management “failure” and “incompetence.”
The SNP’s Westminster leader Ian Blackford joined a growing chorus welcoming not just the change in leadership, but also the appointment of Professor Boyd Robertson as interim chairman.
NHS Highland has had a challenging few months after a group of whistleblowing clinicians claimed the organisation suffered from a bullying culture.
Eventually, the Scottish Government was forced to step in, ordering a review by John Sturrock QC and placed NHS Highland at level four on the board escalation framework in a bid to stabilise the situation. The health board is also facing a projected deficit of £19.9 million for 2018-19.
Mr Blackford said he was “very, very impressed by the standard of care” provided but had heard “heartbreaking” fears of many constituents about care delivery.
“A common theme that runs through all these stories is management failure and I would even go so far as to say management incompetence,” he said.
“With this management, I would say the thing that grieves me most is that it has completely undermined the confidence that people have had in the NHS as a result of their experiences, and that is heartbreaking – that should not happen.
“I have said this repeatedly to David Alston that through their inability to deal with these situations, they are harming the perception many communities have of the ability of the NHS to deliver care and none of these things should happen.”
A spokeswoman for the whistleblowers and the GMB union said: “Since August 2018, our group has been raising awareness of a systemic culture of bullying in NHS Highland covering at least a decade.
“When the whistleblowers and the GMB union met with government representatives last Nov-ember one of our requests was for clear accountability from the leadership of NHS Highland. We are encouraged to see the start of that accountability being demonstrated.
“We also called for an independent review of the culture in NHS Highland. John Sturrock has been working on this and we look forward to seeing his review when it is completed.”
