Hospitals Spend £2m On Staff Gagging Orders (UK)

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Via Sky News: http://news.sky.com/story/1102419/hospitals-spend-2m-on-staff-gagging-orders

The head of the NHS faces fresh calls for his resignation after it emerges millions more have been spent silencing hospital staff.
2:18am UK, Wednesday 12 June 2013
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Some of the orders cost hospitals as much as £500,000

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Hospitals have spent £2m on more than 50 gagging orders banning staff from speaking out, it has been revealed.

Tory MP Steve Barclay, who obtained the figures, accused NHS chief Sir David Nicholson of either failing to ask questions about the orders or being "complicit in a cover-up".

He said Sir David should stand down now - ahead of his scheduled retirement next year - because the culture in the health service had to change.

At least 52 staff have been silenced using the orders since 2008, according to details released following Mr Barclay's Freedom of Information Act request.

The orders - some of which cost as much as £500,000 - are all thought to contain confidentiality clauses.

Mr Barclay is a member of the influential Commons spending watchdog the Public Accounts Committee, which Sir David is due to appear in front of on Wednesday.
Sir David Nicholson Sir David Nicholson will appear before the Public Accounts Committee

The North East Cambridgeshire MP told The Daily Telegraph: "It is simply not plausible that the man who was supposed to be running the NHS was seemingly unaware that employees threatening to speak out were being offered golden goodbyes in return for a vow of silence."

The £2m comes on top of the £15m it emerged in March had been spent by NHS hospital trusts on silencing almost 600 staff, which prompted Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt to ban the use of gagging clauses in compromise agreements.

That £15m did not include "judicially mediated" settlements, under which hospitals reached an agreement with staff which was then signed off by a judge or senior lawyer rather than the Department of Health or Treasury - meaning the Government had no chance to block them.

More at link.