Rewarding failure goverenment style

The left love, especially NuLab politicians, to go in to paroxysms of outrage whenever the boss of a company receives a big pay off having lost a shed load of money. That it is the shareholders who are paying and none of their business doesn't seem to matter, they are full of moral outrage about fat cats and the iniquities of capitalism.

So what happens when someones failure leads to death? Remember Ruth Harrison? Let me remind you:

A former Buckinghamshire NHS chief whose trust was the centre of a Clostridium difficile scandal has stepped down from a review of other hospitals.
Ruth Harrison headed up Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Aylesbury but left in 2006 after a damning report revealed how outbreaks of C diff led to 33 patient deaths

This wasn't shareholder money being lost it was people lives. So, she left her job, didn't she? Well, sort of:

She left her £130,000 chief executive job at Stoke Mandeville Hospital, Bucks, in 2006 with a £140,000 "golden goodbye" the day before a damning report was published, citing serious faults in her leadership

Yep, that's our money her failure was rewarded with, money we have no choice about paying as taxes, not some shareholders who have gone in to a transaction understanding caveat emptor

So what might somebody who's incompetence led to 33 deaths be doing now?Ruth Harrison is being paid £52,000 on a short-term contract to head a review into maternity and children's services at Epsom and St Helier Hospital in Surrey, which could lead to the closure of wards.

Yep, working for the same NHS as a consultant. Its not like this is a one off, remember Rose Gibb, who's incompetence led to deaths at a hospital in Kent?

The practice of cash pay-offs to failing NHS managers led to a public outcry last year over the case of Rose Gibb, the chief executive of Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust in Kent.

She left her job in October when a Healthcare Commission report criticised her handling of the C.diff infection which hit 1,176 people in three hospitals between 2004 and 2006.

After it emerged that she was likely to be given a large payout, Alan Johnson, the Health Secretary, attempted to block it. However it was disclosed last month that Ms Gibb is still seeking £150,000.

This is what we are getting for our money, serial incompetence that not only goes unpunished but is rewarded. Who want a bet that Ms Gibb won't appear somewhere soon, I understand she is setting up a consultancy (I can't be bothered to google it).

Its one thing venture capitalists backing failed entrepreneurs because they have experience, that's their own money, it quite another with the government reemploying people who's incompetence led to people's death.

At least the patients' association are on the ball:

NHS hires ex-chief from 'superbug hospital'
By Lucy Cockcroft
Last Updated: 2:24am GMT 03/03/2008



A former hospital chief executive who was at the centre of a superbug outbreak which left 33 people dead is working for the NHS again, despite receiving a £140,000 pay-off just over a year ago.

Your guide to local hospital services
Ruth Harrison is being paid £52,000 on a short-term contract to head a review into maternity and children's services at Epsom and St Helier Hospital in Surrey, which could lead to the closure of wards.

advertisementShe left her £130,000 chief executive job at Stoke Mandeville Hospital, Bucks, in 2006 with a £140,000 "golden goodbye" the day before a damning report was published, citing serious faults in her leadership.

Under her tenure 33 patients died and 334 became seriously ill with the highly infectious stomach bug Clostridium difficile.

The Healthcare Commission, which carried out the investigation into the outbreak between October 2003 and June 2005, said the trust "compromised the safety of patients by failing to make the right decisions" and that it "rejected the proper advice of their own experts".

Its report said: "The Healthcare Commission considers there were significant failings on the part of the leadership at the trust and has recommended that the leadership change."

The appointment of Ms Harrison at Epsom and St Helier Hospital has caused outrage among patients' rights campaigners, who believe it is tantamount to rewarding poor performance.

A spokesman for the Patients' Association said: "Ms Harrison left Stoke Mandeville at a time when infection rates were so high that it led to avoidable deaths.

"She then got a huge pay-off and a year to enjoy it. Now we hear she is back again advising the NHS on best practice. It absolutely beggars belief."

So next time you hear some NuLab flunky or lefty pontificating about fat cats do what my old RSM would have said: shove it up their backsides so far they will need a dentist to remove it.