A controversial appointment by Local Government Minister, Brian Gibbons has become more problematic with the revelation that the man he sent in to sort out the Council in Ynys Mon, was suspended from his last job as chairman of the United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust (ULHT) pending a review of the way the trust had been run. NHS East Midlands, which oversees local health care, said a series of inquiries were looking into patient care at the trust.
David Bowles’ appointment as the troubleshooter brought in to run Anglesey council after a series of arguments between Councillors and a damning report from the Wales Audit Office, was already causing problems for Brian Gibbons because of the interim Chief Executive’s inability to speak Welsh. Angelsey is one of Wales strongest Welsh-speaking areas.
Mr Bowles, who had been in his previous role since July 2006, said he had been asked to give assurances that patients would be seen within 18 weeks of a GP referral.
But he said he could not give those guarantees for non-emergency patients.
He said: “It has got so bad we are having to build new wards, but those wards will not be available until December. How can you give these assurances when everybody accepts there are too few beds on the hospital site?”
But the chairman of NHS East Midlands, Sir John Brigstocke, told the BBC: “David Bowles was not suspended because he would not guarantee to meet targets as he suggests.
“He was suspended because the strategic health authority had serious concerns about the governance at United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust.”
He said that failures of governance have been found to be the cause of serious consequences for the quality of care for patients elsewhere
The authority said it was working to ensure it did not have a situation which put patients at risk.
The Labour-Plaid Government however, may well escape any serious scrutiny of the appointment due to the fact that the announcement was made during recess. There is no doubt that once the Assembly reconvenes AMs will want to question the Minister on the exact details of Mr. Bowles’ suspension and why the linguistic needs of the area were not taken into account in the appointment.
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The most interesting aspect of all of this is how much did civil servants know about the issue. Bowles resigned after being suspended and then made some very serious allegations of bullying against regional NHS staff. Those allegations are now being investigated by an independent investigatot appointed by the Chief Executive of the NHS in Engalnd with a report due at the end of August. All of these facts were highlighted in both the local Lincolnshire papers, the Health Service Journal and the national press including the Sun and the Telegraph. The press picked up the story because Bowles wrote to his local Tory MP alleging bullying and linking the case to the scandal in Mid Staffs. The local MP than gave it to newspapers such as the Telegraph and the Sun who are not that sympathetic to the NHS. The regional NHS allege that under Bowles’s Chairmanship the trust failed to reach targets set for GP referrals, cancer patients and C Diff and MRSA. It will be interesting to see whta the report says about the whole affair. The only logic conclusion is that the civil servants had not done their homework an knew nothing about it until the Wales on Sunday broke the story. If they did now why did they not wait for the report into events leading up to Bowles’s suspension which is due in the next few weeks. It is alos clear form the comments of the presernt Leader of Anglesey that politicians were completely in the dark about events at the UNited Lincolnshite Trust despite the national publicity.