Independent inquiry into Watkinson suspension

17.06.2010  West Cornwall MP, Andrew George, welcomed the Health Secretary’s announcement today of details of the internal inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the suspension and ultimate sacking of former Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust Chief Executive, John Watkinson.

Mr George had expressed concern to the Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley, that his original proposal would not have been sufficiently independent and therefore it might not reassure the local community in Cornwall that the inquiry was adequate.

It is known that the relationship between the NHS Chief Executive, Sir David Nicholson, and the South West Strategic Health Authority Chief Executive, Sir Ian Carruthers, was such that any inquiry led by Sir David could not have been considered objective.

The inquiry will be undertaken against a backdrop of an appeal by the RCHT in respect of one of two counts on which John Watkinson successfully appealed at a recent industrial tribunal.