Today’s hearing of the Public Accounts Committee is going to be real box office stuff. Sir David Nicholson is giving evidence, supposedly on the NHS IT programme, but he’ll find himself confronted by Tory committee member Steve Barclay, who, armed with freedom of information evidence of 52 gagging orders in the NHS, will demand that the health service boss step down immediately.
This is what Nicholson told the Health Select Committee when he gave evidence on 5 March (full transcript here):
Barbara Keeley: What do you think, as chief executive of the NHS, of a loophole like that existing-where £500,000 of taxpayers’ money could be used to gag somebody who wanted to talk about patient safety?
Sir David Nicholson: As I say, the comments you make there are bitterly contested by the organisations involved-bitterly contested.
Barbara Keeley: What do you think of that as a use of taxpayers’ money?
Sir David Nicholson: In terms of the judicial mediation, it is the first time in my experience that I have ever seen that done.
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