'Whistleblower' sacking denied

Mr Perkin worked at St George's Hospital, South London

Hospital chiefs have dismissed claims from a senior NHS manager that he was sacked after blowing the whistle on alleged waiting list fiddles.

Ian Perkin was dismissed from his post of finance director at St George's Hospital in Tooting, in London, in December after 16 years in the post.

He claims he was sacked after revealing the hospital had "falsified" operation cancellation figures and its finances were in a poor state.

But trust chief executive Ian Hamilton told an employment tribunal that the claims were a red herring.

Mr Perkin, 52, from Worcester Park, south west London, has accused the trust of unfair dismissal. He is fighting to be reinstated in his £100,000 a year post.

Management style

But Mr Hamilton told the tribunal in Croydon, south London, that Mr Perkin's was sacked because of concerns about his management style.

"Mr Perkin claims to be a whistleblower in respect of his allegations that the trust fiddled waiting list figures. This I totally refute.

"The issue of cancelled operations was not an issue raised by me in the management case but was made much of by Mr Perkin, I believe, as a red herring to detract from the real issues in respect of his management style," he said.

"I completely reject Mr Perkin's assertions that I instigated a disciplinary process to penalise him for making his alleged disclosures.

"None of these were ever raised by Mr Perkin as disclosures at the time and were only ever styled as such at the disciplinary hearing itself.

"In my view they are matters which Mr Perkin hastily and late in the day now seeks to use to explain away these concerns that I and many others had about his performance in his role.

"He has produced no evidence whatever to support his contention beyond his own bold assertions."

Mr Hamilton said there had been a "poor relationship" between Mr Perkin and four out of five members of the trust's executive team.

In addition, external "stakeholders" had complained about the finance director's attitude and the trust's auditors had also expressed similar concerns.

In a statement to the tribunal, Mr Perkin said he had informed the trust's board in a "protected disclosure" that a junior member of staff had told him that operation cancellation figures were being falsified.

He claims he raised concerns with the board and its external auditor that the trust was in danger of breaching its statutory duty to balance its books.

The junior colleague who alleged that the figures were being "fiddled" said she was told to state that no operations had been cancelled even though the true figure was 23.

It later emerged that a figure of zero had been returned for a total of three weeks, during which 86 operations had been cancelled on the day for non-clinical reasons.

St George's was awarded two star ratings in last year's Department of Health league tables. It missed out on the top three star rating because of its poor record on cancelled operations.

The alleged falsification occurred in September and October 2001, and has since been corrected.

The hearing continues.