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October 13, 2024
The head of the NHS is to retire early on a £110,000-a-year pension, following months of mounting pressure over his role in one of the worst-ever hospital scandals.
Sir David Nicholson will quit next March with a taxpayer-funded pension pot worth nearly £2million.
His position has been under intense scrutiny after a major report implicated him in the Mid Staffordshire hospital disaster, where up to 1,200 patients are thought to have died needlessly.
He has also been accused of presiding over a Stalinist culture across the health service, in which doctors, nurses and managers are afraid to speak out about poor care.
Julie Bailey, of Cure the NHS, said it was ‘fantastic news’ that Sir David was to leave the health service
Last night bereaved families and MPs questioned the size of his pension and demanded to know why he wasn’t leaving immediately.
Although he is due to stay on for another ten months, he told Health Service Journal he may leave earlier if a suitable replacement is found.
Sir David, who is 57, would normally be expected to retire when he reached the age of 60.
Even in his resignation letter to Malcolm Grant, chairman of NHS England, he refused to apologise for the Mid Staffordshire fiasco.
He merely said: ‘Whilst I believe we have made significant progress together under my leadership, recent events continue to show that on occasion the NHS can still sometimes fail patients, their families and carers.
‘This continues to be a matter of profound regret to me but please note that on a daily basis I continue, and will always continue, to be inspired and moved by the passion that those who work in the NHS continue to show.’
That did little to appease Julie Bailey, who set up campaign group Cure the NHS after her mother Bella died at the trust. Describing his pension as ‘an obscene amount of money for failure’, she said: ‘He’s going with his knighthood and pension still intact.
‘He’ll have a happy retirement, unlike us who have been left with awful memories of watching our loved ones suffer.
‘We are disappointed he is not going immediately but hopefully this is a chance to finally change the NHS. We can start to look to the future now. He was part of the problem – not part of the solution.
Tory MP Charlotte Leslie, who put down a Commons motion calling for Sir David to resign, said: ‘It is a terrible indictment of our political system that he has not already been fired.
‘It is an even worse indictment that in an era where we talk about accountability, he should walk away to an enormous pension, funded by the public.’
Andrew Bridgen is Tory MP for Leicestershire North West, and some of his constituents died at Stafford. He said: ‘His position was untenable, he had lost confidence of 90 per cent of NHS staff and more importantly of the patients.
‘He should go sooner – as soon as a suitable replacement is found. I believe we need a new era of honesty and candour within the NHS and that has to start from the top.
‘The fact he hasn’t apologised for the awful events of Mid Staffordshire and elsewhere and his huge pension will undoubtedly rankle with many.’
Sir David has faced calls to quit since February, when a high profile report linked him to the appalling neglect of patients at Mid Staffordshire NHS trust between 2005 and 2009. Relatives described how elderly patients became so thirsty they resorted to drinking dirty water from vases, while nurses said they left wards in tears because care was so poor.
Sir David was accused of not taking action while in charge of the regional health body overseeing the trust, and later when appointed NHS chief executive in 2006.
In fact at the height of the scandal, in October 2005, he toured the hospital wards and wrote a glowing letter to managers praising them for hitting targets. But he has repeatedly insisted that at the time he had ‘no idea’ of the unfolding scandal and maintained that the failings were ‘system wide’.
He came under further pressure when it emerged he had ignored the concerns of two whistleblowers about another trust, University Hospitals Lincoln, where 670 patients may have died needlessly.
Sir David, who earns £211,000 a year, became known as the ‘man with no shame’ because of his stance over the scandals. Sir David’s pension pot is currently worth just under £1.9million, although this will almost certainly increase with inflation by the time he is due to leave, when it is likely to be more than £2million.
Although his retirement was announced only yesterday, Government officials are believed to have been planning it for some time, having realised his position was untenable.
And while his letter of resignation had yesterday’s date at the top, it includes a paragraph which refers to preparations for reforms beginning on April 1, suggesting it was written in March.
The Mail understands that bosses at NHS England were lining up possible successors three months ago, despite publicly giving Sir David their full backing.
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said: ‘[Sir David’s] job has often been incredibly complex and very difficult, and yet he has always had a reputation for staying calm, and maintaining a relentless focus on what makes a difference on the NHS frontline.’
Source The Mail Online