An NHS trust boss who quit amid outrage over a whistleblower ‘witch hunt’ is continuing to draw up to £275,000 a year in salary and pension contributions.
In the summer, Dr Stephen Dunn was forced to resign due to a critical report by West Suffolk Hospital about how it ignored warnings regarding a senior physician’s drug use.
Colleagues said they had seen the consultant anaesthetist – known only as Dr A – injecting himself with painkillers while caring for patients.
The West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust was under attack after hiring fingerprint and handwriting specialists to help identify the anonymous author of a letter that claimed an anaesthetist shouldn’t have been involved with a failed operation.
Dr Stephen Dunn, who quit amid outrage over a whistleblower ‘witch hunt’, is continuing to draw up to £275,000 a year in salary and pension contributions
Despite stepping down amid the scandal, it has emerged that former chief executive Dr Dunn will continue to be paid until September next year – a situation the Doctors’ Association described as ‘deeply concerning’.
Dr Jenny Vaughan, chairman of the Association said that she believed they [trust leaders]”Accept their shortcomings and failures” does not negate the damages done.
“They must show it by their actions.” It speaks volumes about how serious these findings have been. Yet, they continue to accept a full salary while holding on to that position.
Following an anonymous email sent by Jon Warby to his retired officer, the police began a witch hunt. Susan Warby was the wife of Jon Warby. Susan died five weeks later after having bowel surgery at Bury St Edmunds Hospital in 2018.
The trust spent £1,512 on a fingerprint expert and £968 on a handwriting specialist while warning staff that ‘refusal to provide consent… would be considered evidence that implicates you as being involved in the writing of the letter’. The hunt left Dr Patricia Mills (pictured), feeling ill.
After a critical review of West Suffolk Hospital’s treatment of warnings regarding a senior physician’s drug abuse, Dr Stephen Dunn quit in the summer. (file photo)
According to the whistleblower, the anaesthetist was not allowed to be at work because he had “injected himself with drug”. He also advised Warby that he should ask questions about the doctor, and to inquire into any previous investigations.
Later, an inquest determined that Mrs Warby was not the victim of the consultant’s suicide. The trust did not identify the whistleblower, but it tried. According to an Independent Report from NHS Improvement published this month.
The trust spent £1,512 on a fingerprint expert and £968 on a handwriting specialist while warning staff that ‘refusal to provide consent… would be considered evidence that implicates you as being involved in the writing of the letter’.
Patricia Mills was one of the suspects and revealed that she was ill from the hunt. She said, ‘I thought my 30-year-old career was over.
While Dr Dunn remains formally employed at the trust, he has been placed on secondment to the Nuffield Trust as a researcher in an ‘nonmanagerial’ capacity.