Minister will ask his staff if HSSD report can be published
Saturday 16th May 2009, 2:29PM BST.
Health and Social Services yesterday said it had not yet confiscated a laptop from a former employee.
Lynn Lewendon, who left her clinical risk manager post on Thursday, accused the department of being petty and immoral when it demanded she hand over the laptop she paid for from a bursary awarded by the Insurance Corporation.
Former Health board member Mike Hadley said Mrs Lewendon, who is leaving the island, had been treated unfairly because she communicated concerns regarding the state of Guernsey’s neonatal care to him after her superiors ignored her.
Deputy Hadley has now called for the report that resulted from his enquiries to be published.
Health minister Hunter Adam (pictured) yesterday confirmed that was a possibility.
A department spokesman said the matter of the laptop was not up for detailed discussion in the media.
‘The HSSD is disappointed when a staff member leaves and particularly when that staff member feels aggrieved; the board will investigate all of the issues raised,’ he said.
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The spokesman for the HSSD who said “said the matter of the laptop was not up for detailed discussion in the media” should remember he is a public servant.
Public servants serve the public. Time for the HSSD spokesman to remember who pays his wages.
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I think Deputy Hadley has the best interests of islanders at heart. He is right: Lynn Lewendon was treated with disdain by a large number of senior managers and some MSG consultants – this was well known by staff at Health and clinical risk strategies had improved. She worked tirelessly to improve clinical care and also dealing with bullying and harassment matters – it sounds like the Board members are not interested in being told that there are problems, and instead of taking the problems seriously they complain about the most minute things: like ‘unparliamentary language being used in an e-mail’ . They need to grow up and realise that there are problems, nothing is perfect and in order to improve things staff have to know that they can report things without the worry that they will be hauled up in front of managers and disciplined. Clinical Risk strategies allowed this and things were improving.
Surely a private e-mail is just that: Private. Where do they stand in relation to data protection?
It is strange that Mrs Lewendon was not supported by Health to gain an extension to her licence. She really was making inroads into improving things and helping staff to report problems without the fear of personal reprisals. She will be missed. It will be interesting to discover who is successful in taking over the role – if they are to continue to improve things they will have to have a very thick skin!
Many staff have not even met their senior managers, directors or Board members! What are they doing all day???
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So the HSSD had not yet decided to confiscate the laptop.
Perhaps the HSSD would be advised to check the documents to see if they actually have the right to “confiscate”.
If they don’t have a right to recover, confiscating would be theft.
Looking at the Insurance Corporation web site it does look as if the award is made to the person as an individual, who just happens to be an employee of the HSSD.
Significantly, the HSSD has not made any attempt to show how it has the right to confiscate the laptop. Speaks volumes.
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