It is a sad fact that bullying and harassment are rife in the NHS, and consultants are not immune. I have seen colleagues bullied until they resigned, unable to obtain justice because of the sheer weight of legal expertise pitted against them. Often justice in the UK still goes to him with the deepest pocket.
I have commented before on individual cases and how those who bear ultimate responsibility are the chief executive of the trust, but also the medical director. The medical director is someone to whom the victims should be able to turn but are often deeply implicated in the bullying themselves.
One of the vilest examples of this is what has happened in Mid Yorkshire NHS Trust. Reading this story it is hard to imagine a person less suited to the post of medical director than the incumbent. I can’t say if he is the most malicious, vindictive or mendacious medical director in Britain, after all there is some pretty stiff competition out there, but he is definitely on the shortlist.
Dr David Dawson, described by the industrial tribunal as a “self acknowledged liar”. A man who suspended a colleague, presumably on the urgings of his mates, without even knowing what offence she was alleged to have committed. He is no longer listed on the trust’s web site as medical director. One can only hope that the GMC look into his conduct and make a suitable example of him.
The Chief executive however is still in post and this is she.
Julia Squire is another example of how, in the NHS, failure is consistently rewarded. It remains to be seen whether or not the Trust Board, or the Senior Staff Committee have the integrity to remove her.
Read in between the lines of the full report - it is clear that she is not an innocent victim, but had a bullying attitude to junior doctors. Sure, the trust failed spectacularly to follow standard procedures, but it doesn't excuse how she behaved.
ReplyDeleteget serious, juniors complaining of her were instructed to do so, and they had no other chance. Her only fault was that she belonged to the wrong minority, the one that is considered "socially unacceptable" in the NHS. All doctors trained in Europe are under the same pressure.
DeleteDr Michalak has a fitness to practice hearing coming up at the GMC, so we may hear more of what has gone on. The trust clearly acted incompetently, but is this really worth £4,5 million from the health service budget?
ReplyDelete"it is clear that she is not an innocent victim"
ReplyDeleteDr Michalak has not had a hearing yet, and has not been found guilty of anything. Also it is quite possible that the GMC complaint was submitted by the Trust as part of their campaign of harassment. Remember the Medical Director was Branded a liar by the tribunal.
"Remember the Medical Director was Branded a liar by the tribunal" - hard to find a greasy pole climber who isn't tainted in some way, or other?
ReplyDeleteThe main bullier in NHS Trusts is Trust machinery consisting of head of divisions, clinical directors, members of management together with the medical director and Human Resource Departments. Self-confessed liars is a true representation to this collection of managers
ReplyDeleteIt does not surprise me at all that the medical director was a suspension-happy. In my own Trust, a head of division (clinical director)-another liar worked tirelessly to divide departments in order to concur, befriend a set of consultants who sucked up to him, brought bullying accusations and likewise to outspoken consultants, disregarded trust-own policy in handling consultants and worked to hamper promotion of consultants who did not agree with him.
More cases like this needs to hit the headlines and more Trusts need to find themselves heavily penalised in order to correct the attitude of managers-medical and otherwise. In this case, I would like to see the names of Dr Michalak's colleagues and their pictures shown. They are often the secret conspirators.
The tribunal document has unfortunately uncovered ,once more, organised, easy to co-ordinate institutional racism and sexism in the NHS. Several 'secret meetings' were outlined in the document between members who were described at several occasions to be 'all white-British'.
ReplyDeleteDianne Nichols and her colleagues in the HR department, Dr White, Dr Barnes and Dr Nagar and in particular Dr Dawson all lied, manipulated Committees and sought to accumulate evidence to unfairly dismiss Dr Michalak. They hired 'independent' investigators doctored documents and influenced junior and senior doctors and nurses in an incessant and evil exercise that lead to wrecking the life of a senior NHS consultant, bringing the NHS into disrepute and wasting large sums of NHS money.
The document illustrated that the only luck this doctor had was an insightful husband without whom she would not have a hope in hell. This lady should have a proper medical and occupational support and should be re-instated. The apology of the current chief executive is typical of the way management skim over the heart of the matter and is not to be trusted.
An invitation for reflection on who we are in Britain. Forget the plagiarised equal opportunity documents proudly displayed by employers to cover their backs.
ReplyDeleteEva’s case is yet another example of a destroyed mind of a dedicated professional who once must have believed that in Britain there is such a thing as “Human rights”. This woman will never recover from her injuries and the outcome of the insidious racism that has been an established tradition in UK in general and in the NHS in particular. Professionals of ethnic origin are always treated with suspicion in UK. They are undermined and considered dog’s bodies who put up with racial abuse in various forms. There is no sense of justice and fair play for immigrants The “them” and “us” view is an inherent paradigm to which all the public sector employers including all the universities and the NHS subscribe. Institutional racism includes that within the establishment of the employment tribunals-yes the tribunal judges are also not exempt from being racist and negligent! (This is not merely an assumption).
The arrogance and an undue sense of superiority over the rest of the world will drag Britain down while the selfless community sprit, honesty, sharing and respect will accelerate the pace of the development of the “third world”. We in Britain can no longer continue to enjoy the proceeds of decades of colonialism. Harassment of immigrants does not help pay the national debts either.
The dictators we imposed on the other countries are rejected on mass. Accusing other countries of possession of WMD so that we could invade and ravage their resources does not help us. Promoting ourselves as self-righteous experts in everything when we can’t even hold our cunning bankers responsible for dragging the country to deep recession has clearly not helped. It is time Britain came down its high horses and starts being humble. Britain must recognise that damaging others-be it one person or a whole country, costs more over the long term.
Eva, take your loving husband and son and go to the safety of your extended family. Spend the rest of your life with those who are not blind with prejudice. Help your son build your country as Britain betrayed you and us.
Help! I was treated in an identical fashion by my staff- they colluded with patients in order to generate complaints,accused me of racism and child abuse amongst many other things,left me to see patients unassisted and spread the most vile rumours about me. I had a breakdown because of this, then was struck off years later as a continuation of this witch-hunt.
ReplyDeleteJulia Squire took over from a guy called John Parkes - who also lied to the Employment Tribunal if you read the original judgment. Squire was previously the CEO of Kettering when that hospital had the worst infection rates in the NHS in 2005/6. In Jan 2007, she was moved on to Mid Yorkshire - itself branded the worst Trust in the country and the first to be placed in special measures management in 2005. That new management included David Dawson as medical director who turned out to be a liar. There was a devil's triumvirate of a dreadful medical director and a useless chief executive in charge of the worst run hospital in the UK. Eva Mochalak's story reads like a train crash in slow motion and a predictable consequence of such worthless people running such an enormous Trust. Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust is the largest non-teaching Trust in the UK with an operating budget of £300million. The sooner the local MPs get her pushed out the better.
ReplyDeleteLook where david dawson has ended up - strangely no information in his profile about the circumstances of his leaving his last post....http://www.dearden.co.uk/team.php?member=16/david-dawson
ReplyDeleteMany thanks anon for pointing me in the direction of the picture.
ReplyDeleteLooks like Dearden Ltd might be more accurately named the Scumbag club. . . . . .
ReplyDeleteDon't you just love the quote at the top of there page. . .
ReplyDelete"At Dearden we recognise the value of teamwork, both in our approach to how we work together and for our clients"
Then they go out and hire a scumbag like Dawson who has no idea about leadership and teamwork. . . . .