Cheering Incompetence

By AM Wednesday, July 13, 2011

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When I found out that the last doctor to see Baby Peter failed to recognise a broken back and ribs – like the rest of the nation I thought she must be a terrible doctor. And she clearly was. However, I also read that she was a locum – and ever since then I have been digging and digging to find out why there was a locum and what lay beneath. I found out. And whilst I have no doubt that Haringey Labour Council and Sharon Shoesmith were first in line for retribution being the lead agency and lead individual, I have also had no doubt that there were other agencies who were just as bad – Lynne Featherstone

He was a mere 17 months old, and over an eight month period he was methodically tortured to death by Mommy Dreadful’s sadistic boyfriend, the Nazi worshiping Steven Barker. Given its entrenched imperious demeanour coupled with a determination to silence criticism on the part of Great Ormond Street Hospital, society’s vision becomes much less opaque when peering into the circumstances of a child like Baby P. The infant stood virtually no chance of surviving the horrendous fate that awaited him. Great Ormond Street Hospital, long at the centre of a dispute over its involvement in the death of the child, is now being exposed as a citadel of fear. The investigative journalist Andrew Gilligan, writing in the Daily Telegraph commented:

In emails, letters and secret internal reports, consultants at Great Ormond Street Hospital say that vital medical services have been "destroyed," patient safety is "at risk" and they have been "harassed and targeted" by management for raising their concerns. In one of the leaked letters, Dr Cathy Owens, one of the world's most eminent child radiologists and herself a Great Ormond Street consultant, says there is a "culture of fear" in the hospital with "malicious and vexatious targeting" of doctors who complain.

Owens is currently general secretary, and one time president, of the European Society of Paediatric Radiology. Not exactly a light weight that can be brushed aside by the GOSH regime of fear.

Christine Hall, an emeritus professor at Great Ormond Street, and who previously worked as a former Consultant for the hospital, commented after speaking with her former colleagues:

They and I have grave concerns about the management at the hospital, which has failed on all levels from the top down, fostered a divisive atmosphere and failed patients, who are not getting the treatment they need.

Both Owens and Hall, senior and serious health care professionals, convey the dark back drop against which the Baby P file was dealt with. The year before the child’s brutal demise a permanent consultant at the hospital was moved from her post. Dr Kim Holt had warned of a ‘very high risk’ of a tragedy at the clinic. To no avail. Since then the hospital's attempt to silence her with £120,000 hush money has been refused and while Holt has received an apology there has been no reinstatement.

The 150 year old flagship Great Ormond Street Hospital struts with an arrogance that is borne out of a past it can no longer sustain. It is resting on its laurels, basking in its reputation as ‘an internationally famous centre for child healthcare.’ Which explains the medical journal The Lancet opining in an editorial that ‘perhaps Great Ormond Street is just too important to be seen to fail, even when a child dies.’ Nevertheless, the NHS inspectorate, the Care Quality Commission, has downgraded the hospital’s status from "excellent" to "good" to "fair."

In the time honoured authoritarian response to any questioning the hospital management is trying to depict its critics as heretics, claiming that dissent was coming from only a "minority’ within and rejected the suggestion that a climate of fear existed. There was ‘no evidence that anyone has been targeted for raising concerns.’ Perhaps the hospital should start treating paranoia given that it suspects there is a lot of it about. 

Anyone with experience of probing dictatorial mindsets will be familiar with the ropes.

The institutional culture of inviolability that prevails at the hospital was recently demonstrated in a loutish display of machismo. Dr Jane Collins who is determined to hold on to her position as CEO come what may, despite the grave mishandling of the Baby P case, was given a standing ovation at a meeting of her supporters in the past fortnight. But Dr Steve White of the British Medical Association who attended described the ovation as "unseemly" and "triumphalist", leaving him ashamed of the hospital. Poignantly he said:

We would have done well to mark the end of the meeting by standing in dignified silence to respect the memory of Baby Peter and in quiet contemplation of the fact that we failed him utterly. Any member of the general public who witnessed the last five minutes of the meeting would have been absolutely appalled.

This rests uncomfortably against the more contrite attitude expressed by Baroness Blackstone, the Chair of the hospital’s Trust who wrote ‘the Trust has never hidden our role in the tragic death of Peter Connelly.’

They just cheered about it.