The
Rochford
Files
Private
Eye
1399
21
August
2015
An
employment
tribunal
that
will
decide
the
fate
of
a
whistle-blower
who
says
vulnerable
patients
care
was
put
at
risk
by
the
utter
chaos
in
a
South
London
health
department,
is
due
to
resume
next
month.
Bernie
Rochford,
who
claims
constructive
dismissal,
says
she
was
bullied
into
ill-health
and
driven
from
her
job
as
a
health
commissioner
after
exposing
many
failures
by
Southwark
Clinical
Commissioning
Group
(CCG),
formerly
Southwark
Primary
Care
Trust.
She
says
flawed
IT
systems
and
a
lack
of
monitoring
meant
managers
had
no
idea
how
many
patients
they
were
funding,
where
or
if
those
patients
were
receiving
the
right
care
or
even
if
they
were
still
alive.
According
to
Ms
Rochford,
as
many
as
two
thirds
of
those
on
the
CCG
database
were
dead
or
could
not
be
traced,
while
some
of
those
who
were
not
eligible
for
health
care
were
on
packages
costing
up
to
2,000
a
week.
Rochford,
a
nurse
with
a
degree
in
health
science
and
qualifications
in
public
sector
and
project
management,
said
the
system
at
Southwark
was
an
almost
unbelievable
mess:
patients
were
lost
or
appeared
in
duplicate
or
triplicate;
records
were
outdated
or
missing;
funding
and
care
packages
did
not
match;
money
was
taken
from
the
wrong
pot;
there
were
regular
data
protection
breaches
with
confidential
patient
information
being
sent
to
the
wrong
people;
and
admin
staff
were
making
decisions
about
patients
24-hour
care
without
clinical
or
financial
qualifications
to
do
so.
In
one
case,
a
terminally
ill
patient
died
in
hospital
after
an
urgent
fax
requesting
a
care
support
package
to
allow
the
patient
to
die
at
home
was
overlooked.
A
subsequent
investigation
found
the
fax
had
run
out
of
paper
and
that
other
patients
urgent
cases
lay
on
the
machine
and
had
not
been
acted
upon.
Ms
Rochford
said
she
found
seriously
alarming
problems
the
moment
in
2011
she
took
over
responsibility
for
commissioning
continuing
care
for
patients,
including
very
sick
children,
teenagers
with
disabilities
and
elderly
people
in
care
homes.
She
believed
Southwark
CCG
was
wasting
huge
sums
of
public
money,
but
also
found
hundreds
of
unpaid
invoices,
some
dating
back
to
2007.
She
lost
a
first
employment
alleging
discrimination
and
bullying
against
Southwark
last
year
but
says
that
without
representation
she
was
ill-equipped
to
fight
the
CCGs
legal
team.
This
time,
though
still
fighting
alone,
she
says
she
is
better
prepared
for
her
constructive
dismissal
claim.
She
says
that
despite
an
audit
by
KPMG
in
2013
of
the
new
system
introduced
by
Southwark,
she
found
that
some
of
the
issues
she
had
first
raised
in
2011
such
as
patients
not
being
reviewed
and
gaps
in
records
were
still
a
problem.
She
has
since
discovered
that
documents
in
her
case
have
been
wrongly
shredded
and
claims
others
have
been
altered.
Rochford
tells
the
Eye
that
as
a
whistle-blower,
failure
in
the
regulatory
system
meant
she
had
no
choice
but
to
go
to
a
tribunal
to
have
her
concerns
aired.
Her
case
is
featured
anonymously
featured
in
Freedom
to
Speak
Up,
the
report
on
NHS
whistleblowing
by
Sir
Robert
Francis
QC,
to
demonstrate
how
complex
the
landscape
is
and
how
difficult
it
can
be
for
staff
to
be
heard.
Her
concerns
were
never
flagged
as
a
serious
untoward
incident,
as
she
believes
they
should
have
been;
but
then
the
CCGs
appear
to
be
a
law
unto
themselves,
with
no
one
appointed
to
regulate
their
activities.
Rochford
was
bounced
from
pillar
to
post
when
she
tried
to
raise
her
concerns
outside
Southwark.
The
Department
of
Health
thought
they
were
a
matter
for
the
Care
Quality
Commission;
CQC
thought
them
an
issue
for
NHS
England;
NHS
England
suggested
she
try
the
whistleblowers
helpline;
and
it
in
turn
suggested
she
went
back
to
NHS
England.
Her
correspondence
shows
the
matter
went
through
no
fewer
than
45
levels
of
management
in
various
health
bodies.
Despite
all
the
noises
about
protecting
whistle-blowers,
it
remains
a
hugely
disturbing
and
damaging
process.
Says
Ms
Rochford.
Southwark
CCG
does
not
dispute
Rochford
raised
protected
disclosures,
or
that
there
were
major
problems.
But
it
maintains
it
put
matters
right
and
denies
Ms
Rochford
was
driven
out.
