Still struggling to absorb the latest leaked documents: two letters from Carol Bode, previous Sloven board chair, to Monitor (now NHS Improvement) flagging concerns in 2011 and to Alistair Burt in July 2016.
The 2011 letter is 9 pages long with appendices. My first response, other than horror, was surprise to read an authoritative, sensible and thoughtful letter. Our communications from Katrina Percy and other Sloven execs have been grim, silly, hot air, lying bullying bullshite. Exemplified by the letter Katrina Percy sent me in August 2014 but also Simon Waugh categorically denying Sloven were monitoring my blog.
The back story is Hampshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (HPFT) merged with Hampshire Community Healthcare (HCHC) [Katrina Percy’s stamping ground] creating Sloven in 2011. Senior HPFT bods left and within a short space of time HCHC directors dominated the board. A cheeky little Percy coup d’état with only Helen McCormack remaining from HPFT by 2013. Extraordinary and deeply alarming. Particularly, as Bode raised issues around the expertise of the board two years earlier:
Not only foundation trust expertise but also mental health and learning disability expertise. Before the Ridgeway takeover… [Howl]
Though carefully worded, Bode also raised issues around Percy’s leadership approach:
Sadly, there were no fresh eyes. Simon Waugh, the replacement board chair was replaced by Mike Petter, an old mate of Katrina Percy’s from her pre-Sloven days. A now familiar path of rewarding mates with jobs/contracts.
In her letter to Alistair Burt, after Smart’s board judgement on June 30 this year, Bode states:
If only Monitor had listened and acted… These pages could still be filled with hilarious anecdotes.
You fucking bastards.
PostScript: Thank you for trying, Carol. And thank you to the peep/s who send us these documents. There remains nothing like transparency and candour within official channels.
mydaftlife 
Loved carol, she spent time with patients families frontline staff. Unannounced visits she ensured action happened
No wonder she was not a good fit in KPs entourage
Carol also tells how Katrina spoke of ‘holding our nerve’ as the ‘noise’ in the system increases. The ‘noise’ was her own staff having concerns about how the merger was happening and about patient safety. Does Katrina think she is in a yacht race? This isn’t ‘strong’ leadership. This is ‘keep your fingers in your ears’ leadership.
Absolutely shocking. It starts to reveal, at long last, the total inaction and poor judgement shown by NHS Improvement/Monitor since 2011.
People have been telling them what it is really like and they have not listened, they have failed patients and relatives massively. The people who were most vulnerable in Society.
Even after the Mazars report, numerous CQC inspection failures, still ongoing deaths of patients, Coroner’s criticisms, failing to act on Mike Holder’s report of dysfunctional patient safety and HSE rules, they do not seem seem to grasp the enormity of the failure at Southern Health.
I am not holding my breath waiting for anyone to say that they were at fault, as that does not seem to happen in the NHS. Thank you Carol Bode for at least trying to tell them what was happening – if only they had listened to you then and now.
The more that is revealed the worse it becomes on the people who are paid to make these judgements. What were they thinking to allow this to continue. They should be ashamed of themselves. We are not going away.
On the 30/08/2016 I wrote to NHS Monitor and the Chair of that organisation to complain about how they had conducted themselves over Southern Health. I am waiting to hear if they will carry out a review.
I believe that we need a Public Enquiry into Southern Health. Nothing less will do now.
incredible, this is the untold story that matters/explains so much , no one willing to listen or act simple as. Patients and staff deserve to be supported from here on. Families and patients affected by past inactions need support more than ever. Placing the Trust in special measures has to be a serious consideration surely for the good of all.
WARNING: Be prepared for ‘The Sharon Shoesmith Defence’ for not firing Katrina Percy: Tim Smart has used it twice already. It is a complete myth: the circumstances – factual and legal – were entirely different. Full details are here:
https://999crash.wordpress.com/2016/09/03/the-sharon-shoesmith-excuse/
Note the distinct similarities between the conduct and treatment of Dr Jane Collins, the CEO of Great Ormond Street Hospital, which was linked to the Baby P case too, and the conduct and treatment of Katrina Percy. Then contrast it with the treatment of Sharon Shoesmith.
Parcel is in Tim’s lap. For is one slippery lady. ‘Not me guv’.
Tim assessed her – she has his – ‘full confidence’ and is told …fully comp. With supporting tests.
Game – set – match ?