NHS boss David Ore who spoke out against locking up patients is sacked

By

Paul Bentley

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Facing run: Whistleblower David Ore

A hospital manager who spoke out about staff locking up vulnerable patients said last night that he faces ruin despite a government pledge to protect whistleblowers.

David Ore told his NHS bosses children and pensioners were being restrained and locked in hospital cubicles for up to 12 hours without food or drink.

He said guards were being ordered almost every day to throw patients to the ground and drag them to rooms before holding the door shut so they could not get out. Pensioners were being restrained to ease the burden on overstretched  doctors and nurses, Mr Ore said.

He said the violent security policy even led to the death of an elderly man at failing Russells Hall Hospital in Dudley in the West Midlands, the largest of the three run by the Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust.

Mr Ore managed security staff across the three hospitals, but after repeatedly raising concerns with his bosses he was suspended in November 2012 and sacked five months later after a disciplinary hearing. He won an appeal but was again ordered out on  ‘special leave’ in January – two days after an article about Russells Hall Hospital restraining patients appeared in the media.

Bosses have since written to Mr Ore to say he was being removed because speaking out about his ‘concerns about the alleged illegal restraint of patients’ could have put him in ‘a very difficult position’. Now, despite repeated reassurances from Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt that whistleblowers will be protected, he has been given 30 days’ notice of his potential redundancy.

It is thought the hospital – which is under investigation over high death rates – has spent around £100,000 of taxpayers’ money on the case.

Last night Mr Ore told the Mail he felt forced to speak out, but now faced ruin. ‘Because I spoke out I was treated awfully,’ he said. ‘As a whistleblower, I have been treated worse than a common criminal. The hospital just deny, deny, hide, hide.’

He added: ‘This is about people in that hospital who are being harmed psychologically and physically every day. Their rights to self-determination are being totally disregarded. That could be a relative of yours being put through hell – not just for a few hours, but for days and weeks.’

MPs and campaigners said there were serious questions over Mr Hunt’s ability to crack down on the vilification of whistleblowers.

The Health Secretary says creating a culture of ‘openness and transparency’ in the NHS is vital to prevent a repeat of the Mid  Staffordshire scandal in which up to 1,200 patients died needlessly.

Jeremy Hunt has given repeated reassurances that whistleblowers will be protected

He banned gagging clauses last year after the Mail revealed the case of former Lincolnshire hospitals chief Gary Walker who broke a £500,000 gagging clause to speak out about high death rates.

Mr Hunt then made urgent changes to the NHS constitution last week after the Mail reported that whistleblower Sandra Haynes Kirkbright had been threatened with the sack for speaking out about hospital bosses in Wolverhampton fiddling death figures.

PUSHED OUTSIDE AND LEFT TO DIE

Abandoned: Mohammed Yasin

A frail pensioner died after being removed by security guards at  Russells Hall Hospital in a shocking incident hospital bosses allegedly tried to cover up.

Grandfather Mohammed Yasin, 73, had become angry and upset when he was taken to AE by ambulance after collapsing on a freezing November evening in 2008.

The academic, whose family live in India, was taken outside in a wheelchair by guards at 1am and left alone at a bus stop.

Mr Yasin, who lived alone in Lye, West Midlands, was discovered dead just over four hours later by a passerby 50 yards from the hospital. Last night his friends said his death was ‘despicable’ and claim they were asked to keep quiet.

The Dudley Group said Mr Yasin’s friends were visited after his death by then chief executive Paul Farenden and a senior consultant. The trust denied the friends were told not to speak to the press.

At his inquest, registrar Dr David Raven said: ‘I would have assumed a taxi would be called or another method found.’ The coroner recorded an open verdict.

He said NHS contracts would now

include a ‘right’ to raise concerns about care and a national helpline

would be set up to offer advice to potential NHS whistleblowers.

Mr Ore’s case suggests hospital bosses are continuing to defy  government orders.

Tory

MP Andrew Percy, a member of the Commons health select  committee,

said: ‘If we continue to see this sort of behaviour we will need to look

at whether the law is strong enough.’

Mr Ore’s local Labour MP Ian Austin has now written to the Health Secretary demanding to know if and how Mr Ore will be protected. Former policeman Mr Ore, 58, repeatedly raised concerns with his bosses about the restraint of vulnerable patients from 2010.

He also contacted children’s charity Barnardo’s who drafted a damning report warning bosses the practice violated civil and criminal law.

Mr Ore was accused of gross misconduct for showing ‘aggressive behaviour’ and parking in hospital bays he wasn’t allowed to use, which he denies, before being  suspended in 2012. He says the case against him ‘has everything to do with whistleblowing’.

The trust denies Mr Ore’s claims but admits security staff raised concerns about restraint.

The Dudley Group accepted Mr Ore spoke out about restraint and this has formed part of a claim he is making at an employment tribunal.

However, it said he did so simply as part of his job and he had not done so through the hospital’s  official whistleblower policy.

Chief executive Paula Clark added: ‘There are occasions where patients have required restraint to be used for their own safety and the safety of our staff and other patients. However, we emphatically refute the suggestion that we unlawfully restrain patients.

‘We encourage our staff to raise genuine concerns at the earliest opportunity using our whistleblowing policy.’

A spokesman for Jeremy Hunt said: ‘These are very serious allegations, and that’s why the Care Quality Commission has already been asked to carry out an investigation at this hospital.’

The Department of Health said Mr Hunt has been ‘absolutely clear that NHS staff who have the courage and integrity to speak out in the interests of patient safety must be protected and listened to’.

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chasdavy,

ilford, United Kingdom,

7 hours ago

Hats off to the DM for once again bringing to the fore another story where a whistleblower is being maligned for taking their story to the press. How else will the public get to know about these monstrosities perpetrated on patients.If Hunt wasn’t talking meaningless rhetoric he should be SEEN to be coming down hard on this trust (trust ! a misnomer if ever there was one.)

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NHS boss David Ore who spoke out against locking up patients is sacked