HOSPITAL bosses have apologised to a respected doctor and patients harmed by his urology consultants after a ‘moving and powerful’ speech.

Former University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust consultant Peter Duffy flew over from the Isle of Man to attend a trust governors meeting yesterday afternoon.

An employment tribunal ruled Mr Duffy was constructively dismissed from the trust in 2016. 

His dismissal came after Mr Duffy flagged up clinical errors made by three of his former colleagues; Kavinder Madhra, Ashutosh Jain and Muhammad Naseem.

They have been implicated for mistakes which contributed to patient deaths as well as incidents which have led to a Barrow woman going into renal failure, a Barrow granddad losing a testicle and one Barrow man being paid £125,000 after he was left unable to have sex or urinate normally.

The trust’s governors called an extraordinary meeting in September following the publication of Mr Duffy’s book Whistle in the Wind.

As the strong winds battered the windows at Junction 36 yesterday afternoon Mr Duffy spoke about the impact of the treatment he endured, not only on his own life, but also on the lives of patients and NHS employees.

“How does this treatment and my ongoing predicament fit with the trust’s legal obligations and the board’s promises of no detriment or dismissal to a whistleblower?” Mr Duffy asked.

“And after all the covert briefings, cover-ups and misleading statements, how does this fit with the trust’s duty of candour, particularly to the bereaved families?

“What are NHS staff across the country to make of the fact that after bullying and abuse, resignations, near misses, avoidable deaths, serious and avoidable harm, disobedience to the coroner, threats, lies, retaliation, harassment, broken promises, cover-ups, covert briefings and misleading statements, true to form, the only member of staff to suffer financial punishment and detriment, demotion and dismissal is, of course, the NHS whistleblower?

“After such a litany of failure, risk taking and cover-up how on earth can these events possibly sit alongside the NHS constitution, freedom to speak up, equality and diversity, and making the NHS a great place to work and to be cared for?”

NHS England/Improvement has recently commissioned an external inquiry into the urology department at UHMBT following Mr Duffy’s whistle-blowing and an investigation by The Mail.

Yesterday’s meeting was also attended by Nicola Brierley and Karen Beamer - the daughters of Peter Read who died after mistakes by Mr Jain and Mr Naseem, who supported Mr Duffy.

Liz Sedgley, acting chair of UHMBT, thanked Mr Duffy for attending the meeting.

“To hear you speak such moving words in person is very powerful,” she said.

“I can only apologise for what you and your family, and the patients, have gone through.

“It wasn’t right.”