THE WATCHDOG THAT WATCHES NOBODY A baby died. Her name was Ida. She was six days old. The Care Quality Commission sent an inspector to look into her death at Royal Lancaster Infirmary, part of University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Trust (@UHMBT). That inspector, Ian Kemp, says he wrote a hard report. He says the CQC watered it down before anyone saw it. Three hours before Ida's inquest was due to start, Kemp emailed the coroner directly. The inquest was halted. The CQC's lawyers told the court his allegations were not recognised. The coroner concluded Ida died because of the gross failure of three midwives to provide basic care. This is the same trust. The same hospital system found guilty in 2015 of a lethal mix of failures that killed 11 babies and a mother. Investigator Bill Kirkup told Ida's inquest the internal review praising staff had all the same shortcomings as the institution he had dissected a decade earlier. The trust's internal investigation after Ida's death found no care failings. It praised the great cohesion and communication of the delivery suite team. A regulator that softens its own inspector's findings. A trust that investigates itself and gives itself a clean bill of health. And a family that spent years fighting just to be told what anyone paying attention already knew. Source: @IndexCensorship / @ITVGranadaRpts / @BBC / @ComputerWeekly |

NHS RECYCLING SCHEME: SILENCE A WHISTLEBLOWER, KEEP YOUR JOB Simon Holmes launched unlawful disciplinary proceedings against Dr Jasna Macanovic after she raised patient safety concerns about dialysis patients. She won £219,000 at tribunal. The NHS spent £460,000 fighting her. Holmes retired and walked into a role at Hampshire Hospitals to oversee their speaking-up culture. His old HR colleague Tim Powell, who blocked an investigation into the people targeting Dr Macanovic, is now Chief People Officer at the same trust. Kathryn Magson's treatment of whistleblower Dr Rosalind Ranson was ruled "vindictive" and "self-serving" by a tribunal judge. Dr Ranson won £3.2 million. Magson is now employed at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (@MaudsleyNHS). Dr Ranson cannot get a job in the NHS. Jacqueline Totterdell wrongfully suspended cardiac surgeon Prof Marjan Jahangiri. A High Court judge called her reasoning "wholly inadequate." Cost to the trust: £11 million in lost revenue and nearly £1 million in legal fees. She kept her £180,000-a-year salary. Martyn Pitman (@MartynPitman) named it accurately. The re-appointment merry-go-round. Disgraced managers recycled into neighbouring trusts while the doctors who spoke up are locked out of the profession entirely. One of these recycled executives was hired specifically as a non-executive director for speaking up. The NHS does not have a culture problem. It has a perpetrator protection programme. Source: The Telegraph via Yahoo News | @Telegraph @MaudsleyNHS @MartynPitman