Tribunal orders full hearing for Perkin

23 Jan 03
The finance director who says he was sacked by St George's Healthcare NHS Trust in London for whistle-blowing has lost his first attempt to win his job back.

24 January 2003

Ian Perkin, who was dismissed by the trust's board in December 2002, told an interim employment tribunal hearing on January 17 that he had been sacked for highlighting 'false' operation cancellation statistics and the trust's precarious financial situation.

He argued that these were disclosures protected under the Public Interest Disclosure Act. But the tribunal rejected Perkin's request for reinstatement pending a full hearing of his case. Instead, it ordered a hearing should take place within 28 days.

Chair Mark Haughton said the panel was not yet convinced that he had a 'pretty good chance' of proving he was sacked for whistle-blowing.

In his statement to the tribunal, Perkin

said he had warned the trust's board that false data for the weekly number of cancelled operations had been submitted to the Department of Health.

A junior member of staff said she had been told by deputy chief executive John Parkes to change the figure from 28 to 0 for the first week of October 2001. Perkin subsequently learned that figures for the previous two weeks had been changed from 42 and 11 to 0.

In his statement, Perkin said he had also warned the board and the external auditor, Simon Sharp from PricewaterhouseCoopers, that the trust would fail to deliver a balanced budget in 2002/03.

Perkin said his third disclosure related to a dinner for the trust's outgoing chair, held at the Savoy Grill. More than half the £1,100 bill was charged to 'a non-existent budget called the chairman's hospitality account', on the instructions of chief executive Ian Hamilton.

Perkin's counsel told the tribunal his client was disliked for not being a team player. This was because of his 'frankness, openness and rather annoying habit of telling the truth'.

Afterwards, Perkin said he remained confident the full hearing would rule in his favour. 'There is no suggestion that anything I said was untrue, so I regard today as a moral victory.' He added: 'There should be an investigation by ministers and senior officials into what went on at St George's.'

The trust's counsel told the hearing Perkin had been sacked because of his 'disruptive management style'. He said the problem with the false operation statistics had soon been resolved, and rejected the claims against Hamilton as being 'without substance'.


PFjan2003

Did you enjoy this article?

AddToAny

Top