Trust’s directors scapegoated psychiatrist over patient’s death, tribunal finds

A mental health trust ‘scapegoated’ a psychiatrist over the death of a patient amid systemic issues, an employment tribunal has found.

Judges called the conduct of two senior directors — one of whom is a current NHS trust medical director — into question after ruling they had colluded to scapegoat Bernadette McInerney for issues that would have damaged the trust’s reputation.

Nottinghamshire Healthcare Foundation Trust was found unanimously to have unfairly sacked and victimised Dr McInerney, a former consultant forensic psychiatrist at Rampton secure hospital, in a decision published last week.

The judgement was critical of both Chris Packham, a GP at Rampton hospital, and NHFT’s then-executive medical director Julie Hankin, but it also strongly condemned the trust’s former executive director for forensic services Peter Wright. Dr Hankin is now medical director at Cambridgeshire and Peterborough FT.

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Original source: Health Service Journal