Belfast Trust facing highest-level accountability process after critical report

The Belfast Health Trust is facing the highest-level accountability process following a report said to contain allegations of bullying.

Stormont Health Minister Mike Nesbitt stressed the move was not “about a punishment”.

He told reporters in Belfast it was about “providing the assistance and co-operation from the department to make sure that they can get the culture and behaviours within the workforce where we need them to be”.

He has announced the department’s performance accountability process for Belfast Trust has been raised to level five, the highest level.

It comes after the findings of an independent external review, first reported by UTV, are said to have included an intolerable working environment and a pattern of consistently poor behaviour within the unit.

The independent review into the cardiac surgery service in the Belfast Trust was said during a meeting of the Stormont Health Committee last month to have contained allegations of bullying of junior staff by more senior staff, surgeons working from home and the throwing of medical instruments during operations.

Mr Nesbitt said while it is up to the trust to implement recommendations from the report, the department is in advanced talks with a expert in the management of clinical teams, with an announcement imminent.

On Thursday, he announced that he has appointed Peter McBride to examine the situation in the Belfast Trust.

“He is going to go in and he is going to tell me how widespread those cultural and behavioural issues may be beyond that surgical team from cardiac,” he said.

Last week, Mr Nesbitt said he was finalising a series of Department of Health interventions following the report.

In a statement to the Assembly on Thursday, Mr Nesbitt said the behaviours detailed in the report are “appalling and bring shame on our health service”.

He announced the department’s performance accountability process for Belfast Trust has been raised to Level 5, the highest level.

“This level is expected to be required in only the most serious and exceptional cases,” he said.

“Level 5 intervention is not about blurring lines of responsibility. To be clear, it is the responsibility and duty of Belfast Trust – its senior executives and board – to deliver the action plan for improvement, and to ensure that it leads to tangible improvements in the culture and working environments for this important service in Belfast Trust.”

He added: “Level 5 is about ensuring support, oversight and sustained focus. It will assist the trust to achieve stabilisation, ahead of its management reset with the appointment of a new chief executive.

“To that end, I am putting in place external expert support for the trust and have enhanced departmental accountability, now formalised as a departmental accountability team.”

He also told MLAs that he has left the trust in “no doubt that I expect a comprehensive response to the review’s findings and recommendations.

“An action plan for improvement must be implemented with the urgency that is plainly required,” he added.

Responding, DUP MLA Diane Dodds welcomed the move.

“I am pleased after many months of highlighting failures and demanding action that the Health Minister finally seems to be responding. This had become inevitable, but is absolutely necessary,” she said.

“It appears to have taken the most recent leaked report and associated publicity for something finally to happen.

“I trust the minister agrees intervention must be radical and comprehensive.

“It is essential that any actions tackle head on the management failure issues in the trust. Alarming and unacceptable as they are, the revelations about the cardiac surgery team are only symptoms of the wider disease at the top of the Belfast Trust.”