Sacked NHS boss 'relieved and saddened'

Mrs Harris was appointed chief executive at the age of 32

A hospital boss sacked after a scandal over fiddled waiting lists has spoken out for the first time since winning her case for unfair dismissal.

Barbara Harris was sacked from her post as chief executive of the Royal United Hospital in Bath in August 2002 after a review found waiting times had been falsified.

But last month she was awarded more than £200,000 by an industrial tribunal for unfair dismissal.

She told the BBC: "I am relieved that it is over. The pain and suffering to me and my family has been huge.

We accept this finding and regret the fact that we did not adequately follow the appropriate procedures

Mike Roy
RUH Trust Chairman

"But I am deeply saddened that the case took place in the first place."

Mrs Harris was chief executive at the RUH for eight years.

She added: "The tribunal said, and the Trust admitted in court, that there were no issues of personal misconduct for me to face whatsoever."

She said she was not aware that hundreds of patients were taken off the 13 and 18 month waiting lists during her tenure.

"The only patients ever removed from the 18 month list, on my instructions, were for totally legitimate clinical reasons and that was covered in court.

"As far as I am concerned, when I was in post, I was assured by a senior management team that the figures I was given to sign off were correct. I don't accept I wasn't doing my job properly.

No comment

"Where we were in doubt about any of the figures we were reporting, we reported that doubt," she said.

Trust chairman Mike Roy said: "When the tribunal ended it was reported that Barbara Harris had won her claim for unfair dismissal and that the tribunal felt the Trust had not fully followed the appropriate disciplinary procedures.

"We accept this finding and regret the fact that we did not adequately follow the appropriate procedures.

"On the advice of its lawyers the Trust will be making no further comment on this case but we will, of course, be reviewing the full findings over the next few weeks and we will seek to learn any lessons that may be apparent.

"It is my job now - in the interests of patients and our local community - to draw a line under the manifest difficulties of the past and to help the Trust move on.

"This I propose to do."