WHISTLEBLOWER CAUGHT THE FRAUD, THE NHS CAUGHT AMNESIA
Sharmila Chowdhury @sharmilaxx gave the NHS 30 years of clean service. Not one blemish. Then she did something apparently unforgivable.
She noticed two consultant radiologists at Ealing Hospital, run by London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust @LNWH_NHS, billing the NHS for shifts they were actually spending at a private hospital down the road.
Getting paid twice for the same hours is fraud everywhere on earth.
Everywhere except, apparently, inside an NHS complaints process.
She reported it.
To her line manager.
To the Medical Director.
To the HR Director.
To Counter Fraud.
To the Chief Executive.
To Number 10.
To the Treasury.
She built a paper trail so solid that ITV @itvnews later sent an undercover team into the same hospital years on and filmed the same consultants still taking cash from patients for private ultrasounds on NHS premises.
The Trust's response to all that diligence was to sack her, based on counter allegations later shown to be fabricated.
The man behind those allegations reportedly signed off an email too crude to print here.
He picked up a Top Mentor award from the Trust that same year. Nobody writes comedy this good on purpose.
Sharmila took it to tribunal and won. Won the appeal too.
A judge ordered the Trust to reinstate her. The Trust said no. She was then quietly blacklisted across the NHS.
One job offer was withdrawn the moment they worked out who she was. Legal costs hit £130,000.
Somewhere in the middle of it she developed breast and lung cancer, which her doctors link to years of sustained stress.
The two consultants kept their jobs.
George Osborne could not get involved.
Andrew Lansley could not get involved.
David Cameron could not get involved.
Every one of them filed it under employment matter, Whitehall for we would rather not know.
A proven fraud case, covered by ITV @itvnews, the Guardian, Daily Mail @DailyMail, Channel 4 News @Channel4News, the Independent @Independent, BBC News @BBCNews, the Times @thetimes and the Daily Mirror @DailyMirror.
The official position of Her Majesty's Government was still not our problem.
This is the reward system.
Report fraud, lose your career, lose your health, and watch the people you reported get promoted.
@KTHopkins@LBC The rapists are worried about being brought to justice, so eliminate the victims. They shouldn't be concerned about such an unlikely event. Let the women live.
@Frances_Coppola It's outrageous that such a dangerous animal was seen as being fit to be in the community by the institutions of Merseyside and Lancashire.