The boss of an NHS trust that was widely criticised for failing to investigate unexpected deaths of patients with mental health problems or learning disabilities has resigned, citing “media attention”.
Katrina Percy, the chief executive of Southern Health NHS foundation trust, who has been under pressure to stand down for months, announced her resignation on Tuesday.
The trust’s leadership was censured in an independent report commissioned by NHS England after 18-year-old Connor Sparrowhawk, who had learning disabilities, drowned in a bath after an epileptic seizure at Slade House in Oxfordshire in July 2013.
In December the inquiry team concluded that the trust had failed to properly investigate the deaths of more than 1,000 patients with learning disabilities or mental health problems over a four-year period, and criticised a “failure of leadership”.
In April the trust’s chairman, Mike Petter, stood down just before the publication of another critical report, this time by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), which said the trust was still not doing enough to protect people in its care.
But Percy resisted calls to quit, including from Connor’s mother, Dr Sara Ryan, and the former shadow health minister Luciana Berger, until Tuesday.
Announcing her decision, Percy said: “I have reflected on the effect the ongoing personal media attention has had on staff and patients and have come to the conclusion that this has made my role untenable.
“I know and understand that many will say I should have stepped down sooner given the very public concerns which have been raised in the past months. I stayed on as I firmly believed it was my responsibility to oversee the necessary improvements and to continue the groundbreaking work we have begun with GPs to transform care for our patients.”
Percy said she would be taking up an alternative role providing strategic advice to local GP leaders. Julie Dawes, who joined the trust in May as director of nursing and quality, will take over as chief executive on an interim basis.
Liberal Democrat health spokesman Norman Lamb welcomed Percy’s “belated” resignation, but said: “Rather than taking responsibility and doing the honourable thing by stepping down, Katrina Percy continued to put her own interests before the public interest.
“Reports that she will move into another well-paid job advising GPs on strategy are deeply concerning and will aggravate the sense of injustice felt by the families of those who lost their lives.”
Deborah Coles, the director of the charity Inquest who worked with Sparrowhawk’s family, said: “The CEO and board presided over dangerous systems and practices that cost lives. Despite repeated warnings there was a failure to act.
“Those patients and families affected have a right to be justifiably angered that this resignation is not an acceptance of responsibility for systemic failings but further denial and obfuscation by blaming ‘media attention’.”
The report commissioned by NHS England, carried out by the audit firm Mazars, concluded that failures by the trust’s board and senior executives meant there was no “effective” management of deaths or investigations and a lack of “effective focus or leadership from the board”.
The CQC, which subsequently carried out a snap inspection, said: “The key risks and actions to address them were not driving the senior leadership or board agenda.” It said the leadership did not proactively address risks “before concerns are raised by external bodies”.
In June the trust accepted responsibility for Connor’s death and agreed to pay his family £80,000 in compensation. Last October an inquest jury concluded that neglect contributed to the death of the teenager, who was known affectionately as Laughing Boy or LB.
Southern Health’s interim chairman, Tim Smart, said Percy had reached the conclusion that “due to the significant focus on her as an individual, it is in the best interests of the trust, patients and staff for her to step down”.
Under-fire Southern Health chief quits over "media attention"
