Health watchdog targets its own whistleblower

It has been revealed that the head of the Care Quality Commission, (CQC) Dame Jo Williams wanted one of her own non-executive directors removed from the board after she had raised concerns that safety was being compromised by poor leadership and performance.

The report, in The Independent newspaper says that Kay Sheldon was placed under ‘priority monitoring’ and branded a ’risk’ to the regulators after raising concerns and speaking out at the public inquiry into strife-torn Mid Staffordshire Hospital in November 2011. The paper then says that internal documents revealed plans to oust Mrs. Sheldon from her position within the CQC.

On the day that Mrs Sheldon spoke out at the inquiry, Dame Jo Williams wrote to Health Secretary Andrew Lansley asking that Mrs. Sheldon be ‘immediately’ suspended and ‘urgently’ replaced. It is a criminal offence to punish a witness for giving evidence to a public inquiry.

The newspaper alleges that Dame Williams, a former Chief Executive of Mencap, used taxpayer’s money in order to pay for an external mental health assessment on Mrs Sheldon from an occupational health doctor who was not a qualified psychiatrist.

Without ever having met Mrs Sheldon, who has admitted to a 26-year history of depressive illness and is a recognised expert in advocacy and patients’ rights, the doctor, after a brief telephone call described her as possibly suffering from ‘paranoid schizophrenia’ and recommended that her medical history should be obtained ‘in confidence’ and that she should either be ‘assessed or else removed from her position’.
His report concluded: “If she is suffering from serious psychological illness this will affect her judgment at the moment and it is as important for her to get this under control as it is for her fellow commissioners, who have to deal with her in her current state of mind.”

Dame Williams then told the CQC Board that she intended to share this report with Mr Lansley and that she had ‘serious concerns’ about Mrs. Sheldon’s mental state.

This matter will raise major questions about Dame Williams’ continuing role as chairwoman within the CQC, not least because of the organisation’s key role in advising and supporting NHS whistleblowers and others who speak out against and expose poor or dangerous standards of care in hospitals and residential establishments throughout the country.

It also raised questions about the Health Secretary’s personal attitude regarding the status of health-whistleblowers and how they can be protected by the law.

This is not the first time that the CQC has come under fire. Following the inquiry at the Mid Staffordshire, both the Health Select Committee and the Public Accounts Committee have reported major problems within the organisation. And in February, the organisation’s Chief Executive, Cynthia Bower stood down following a government review that endorsed Mrs Sheldon’s own concerns about poor leadership, governance and what it called ‘unclear accountability’.

Historically, the organisation has had a central role in exposing poor practice and has exposed patient safety failures at Morcambe Bay, United Lincolnshire and Barking, Havering and Redbridge NHS Trusts.

After receiving a letter from Mr Lansley saying that he was ‘considering removing’ her from the board, Mrs Sheldon commenced legal action. Her lawyers argued that such action would be illegal as it breached legislation protecting whistleblowers, threatened her human rights and was at odds with the government’s own whistle-blowing policy.
Her case was further strengthened when Margaret Hodge, chairwoman of the Public Accounts Committee, wrote to Mr Lansley in support of Mrs Sheldon stating that the issues she’d raised about the CQC and Mid Staffs were “substantially true”.

Last month, following a meeting between lawyers representing the Department of Health and Mrs Sheldon, the Health Secretary agreed that Mrs Sheldon should be allowed to remain on the board as a “fully engaged and active” member.

A CQC spokesperson has issued a statement saying that Dame Williams was trying to ‘re-establish working relationships within the board’.