20 July 2001
Inquiries announced this week will examine the effectiveness of complaints procedures against Clifford Ayling, a Kent GP who was convicted in December 2000 on 13 counts of indecent assault and sentenced to four years in prison, and Richard Neale, a Yorkshire gynaecologist who was struck off by the General Medical Council in July 2000 for poor standards of care.
A further inquiry will consider the adequacy of the Yorkshire NHS response to complaints against psychiatrists William Kerr and Michael Haslam.
As in the Bristol inquiry, the new investigations are expected to examine why concerns had not emerged earlier and if there are any cultural barriers to whistleblowing, such as doctors' attitudes to colleagues who cry foul.
The Bristol inquiry chair, Professor Ian Kennedy, said doctors in the trust had 'a club culture, where it was hard to raise matters of concern and harder still to get anything done about it'.
Kennedy said 30 to 35 more children died in Bristol than would have been expected in normal circumstances, and he added that there was nothing to prevent similar problems occurring in the NHS today.
His report called for a series of reforms, including the appointment of a national director of children's services at the Department of Health and the creation of an office of performance information within the Commission for Health Improvement.
Health Secretary Alan Milburn said he would implement these proposals immediately and would give a fuller response to the report in the autumn. 'The report says managers are also responsible for reviewing standards and protecting patients. It calls for a new regulatory body for NHS managers which we will consider introducing,' he added.
British Medical Association chair Ian Bogle backed the report's recommendations.
'We are absolutely determined to see that some good comes out of the tragedy by working with government and with colleagues to detect problems at an early stage, to provide better information for parents and patients and to improve safety and quality,' he said.
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