British Medical Blogs 14: Total Hypocrisy

Today's round up of blogs focusses on the strange and disgraceful story of a Hospital Doctor, and Hospital Management board, issues on confidentiality and total hypocrisy.

Jobbing Doctor has never met Dr Shirine Boardman. He has never worked in Leamington Spa or even driven through it. Jobbing Doctor is a Jobbing GP. So I have actually no vested interest in this story. Except natural justice.

Dr Boardman qualified in Malaysia and is of Asian parentage. She has come to the UK to specialise in Diabetes, a really important condition. She quite quickly achieved the status of consultant and was working very successfully in Leamington Spa. One of the issues she discovered in Leamington Spa was that she was not reaching out effectively to a particularly vulnerable group - the older Asian Community. So she, and some colleagues, set about doing something to rectify this.

Her philosophy was this:

"I’m a hospital doctor and was trapped in hospital, seeing patients with the most serious forms of disease, did a lot to put it right, but I wanted to be able to deal with it much earlier. I was dealing in drugs, drugs and drugs, but there is mind body and soul in health care.

I was one of the few who managed to break free and get into community to get to roots of problem; it was eye-opening. Hospital doctors would love to do more community work, but competition and the primary-secondary care divide seems to put a stop to this. I understand the need to raise standards but integration would really get people to work to their strengths. We need a different approach and vision."

This is quoted in the Witch Doctor.

So Dr Boardman set about changing things, and working closely with the local Primary Care Trust, and with the support of the local Asian Community, she was instrumental in setting up the Apnee Sehat project. The information is here. This addressed a particular area of health need, and in Jobbing Doctor's view is a groundbreaking project. The primary Care Czar, David Colin-Thome, and the Prince of Wales thought so as well. The project is listed on NHS choices giving it an imprimatur.

Dr Boardman needed to gain contact with this hard to reach group, and so she used an NHS database from her work in Leamington Spa so that this NHS-sanctioned project could work effectively.
This is where the problems for Shirine started. Technically this can be deemed a breach of confidentiality, and for this she was summarily dismissed. At this point a number of medical bloggers started to comment on events going on. These included the indefatigable Dr Rita Pal, Debacle (blog currently closed), the Witch Doctor and the Jobbing Doctor.

Strange Goings on in Leamington Spa 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6. This charts the whole saga.
But there is a mighty and hypocritical twist in the tail here. You see this same trust has form when it comes to IT and confidentiality as they were taken to task by the information commissioner about their plan to share Smart Cards.

Here are some of the links.

Smartcard sharing by an NHS trust.
Connecting for Health condemns smartcard sharing.
NHS Security Dilemma as smartcards shared.
South Warwickshire NHS Trust authorises sharing of smartcards.
South Warwickshire clinicians sharing smartcards usage.
Computer Misuse act 1990

I am grateful to Dr Grumble for these links.

So in essence this wretched organisation of managers and money men (with one token anaesthetist) has sanctioned the sacking of a popular and imaginative consultant because they have had their knuckles rapped before and they are covering their backs.

Shame on them.


Dr Boardman will get another job. Jobbing Doctor would love to work with her. The managers and overpromoted hacks on the South Warwickshire Hospital Board have lost an effective and popular consultant.

But it is the Asian Diabetic patients in Leamington Spa will be worst off for it.

This is, in microcosm, an excellent example of the mess that is being made of our once great NHS.