12.06.13
Nicholson ‘complicit in cover-up’ of gagging orders – Tory MP
NHS hospitals have spent £2m on over 50 gagging orders since 2008, a FoI request by Tory MP Steve Barclay has highlighted.
The orders are all thought to contain confidentiality clauses, stopping NHS staff from speaking out about poor practice. Health secretary Jeremy Hunt banned the use of gagging orders this March, but ‘judicially mediated’ settlements can be agreed and signed off with a judge or senior lawyer rather than the Government, making them harder to stop.
Barclay, MP for North East Cambridgeshire, accused NHS England chief executive Sir David Nicholson of either failing to ask questions about the orders or being involved in a cover-up.
He told The Daily Telegraph: “It is simply not plausible that the man who was supposed to be running the NHS was seemingly unaware that employees threatening to speak out were being offered golden goodbyes in return for a vow of silence.
“As the accounting officer who has presided over this culture he is either complicit in a systemic cover-up or has failed to ask questions. If he knew about them he has misled Parliament.
“The culture in the NHS needs to change, he has to stand down now. What patient safety concerns have been covered up [by these gagging orders]? How many lives have been put at risk?”
A Department of Health spokesman said: “Judicial mediation payments do not mean that someone is gagged – it is a way of resolving a dispute and suitable cases for this are decided on by a judge.
“The Department did not collect data on these payments prior to February 2013. This has now changed – all non-contractual severance payments, whether via judicial mediation or another means, need to be scrutinised by a national body and they will not be recommended for Treasury approval unless the NHS can show that they have made staff fully aware of their legal right to blow the whistle.
“Judicial mediation payments cannot prevent staff from speaking out about matters on patient safety or in the public interest – NHS staff are protected by the law, regardless of when their payment was made and whether or not it was via judicial payment or any other means.
“The health secretary has been absolutely clear that ‘gagging’ is illegal and it will not be tolerated.”
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