NHS trust denies bullying and intimidation of IT whistleblower

A health trust has denied bullying and intimidation of a former nurse who blew the whistle on serious IT problems which put patient care at risk.

Southwark Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) is contesting a claim by former clinical commissioner Bernie Rochford for constructive dismissal.

Rochford claims she was forced to leave in July 2014, after raising concerns about the quality of patient records on the trust’s Total Care Management database with senior managers in Southwark, then a Primary Care Trust (PCT).

Southwark had no clear idea of how many patients were on its books, where the patients were, or whether they were alive or dead. Patient information was wrongly being sent to people who were not involved in patient care, and faxes requesting urgent patient care were overlooked, according to evidence presented in an earlier tribunal. 

During a hearing on 14 September 2015, Rochford’s line manager, Kate Moriarty-Baker, head of continuing care and safeguarding, told an employment tribunal that the trust had already been aware of Rochford’s concerns.

Moriarty-Baker said she had written a report identifying the problems, including the need for a new patient database, and sent it to Andrew Bland, then chief executive of NHS Southwark PCT. “I did not need Bernie to highlight what the issues were. I knew what they were,” she said.

Under cross-examination from barrister Mark Benney, Moriarty-Baker told the tribunal that it was wrong to suggest that she had failed to pass on a report written by Rochford, which raised concerns about the accuracy of patient data, to her line manager Gwen Kennedy, director of commissioning.

Moriarty-Baker said she regularly updated Kennedy about the work of the commissioning team, and that Rochford was part of the team. “No, it's not right. I did have conversations with Miss Kennedy about the report,” she said.

She told the tribunal: “I read it, I cross-checked with the work plan, I had discussions with Miss Kennedy about it.”

Benney suggested that Moriarty-Baker may have been reluctant to pass the report upwards as it would have revealed that a member of administrative staff had been “performing work above her pay grade”.

Moriarty-Baker said this was not the case and, as far as she was aware, the member of staff concerned had not been operating above her pay grade. 

She said the PCT had already brought in clinical commissioners, including Rochford, to address concerns about patient care.