A controversial advisory role occupied by Katrina Percy, former boss at Southern Health trust, has not been advertised following her departure, it has emerged.
Southern Health’s former interim chair Tim Smart had insisted Ms Percy’s responsibilities in the advisory role involved “vital work that needs to be done”.
The appointment had raised concerns that it was created to keep the heavily criticised Percy on board. The controversy followed Southern Health’s acceptance of responsibility for the death of autistic teen Connor Sparrowhawk.
Katrina Percy: other staff are now sharing her £250,000 advisory role
Now the NHS trust has confirmed it has handed Percy’s work to a number of its senior executives, rather than advertising for applicants for the advisory role.
‘Executive team carrying out work’
In a statement the trust said: “Members of the executive team, including the director of strategy (Chris Ash) and director of integrated services (Gethin Hughes) are carrying out this work alongside partners in primary care and commissioning.”
Percy headed Southern Health when an NHS England investigation also found it failed to investigate hundreds of deaths over a four-year period.
In June, the trust accepted responsibility for the death of Connor Sparrowhawk, 18, who drowned in a bath.
Ms Percy quit as chief executive in August, but moved into the newly created advisory role to work with GPs and kept her pay package of nearly £250,000.
Payout for Percy of £190,000
She left the trust altogether in October with a £190,000 payout after a public backlash.
The trust insisted the decision to appoint her to the advisory role was the “most appropriate one at that time”.
Dr Maureen Rickman lost younger sister Jo Deering, 52. Jo died four months after she was discharged from a Southern Health psychiatric unit with schizophrenia.
Jo was sectioned in 2011 and discharged two weeks later. She returned home, where she was the main carer for her 89-year-old mother, who was suffering dementia.
The family maintain she was still ill when she returned home.
Dr Rickman, 52, said: “The fact that executive board members have soaked up that (advisory) role prompts the question again why the work wasn’t assigned to them in the first place.”
Related:
Percy shunted out of £190,000 role
Medical staff still lack autism training
Adults fear death in poor healthcare
No trust in Southern Health NHS trust
First step in justice for Connor?
New NHS guidelines shift care provision
Calls to end long-distance care
Published: 1 December 2016
