Two whistleblowers, one employed by the UK’s Care Quality Commission and the other a US former banker at UBS, both found themselves vindicated in their actions this week.
Dame Jo Williams, who stepped down as chairman of the health regulator last week, was forced to apologise to a hearing of MPs for making public allegations about the mental health of board member, Kay Sheldon.
Williams admitted to the Health Select Committee that she had tried to have Sheldon sacked from the board after “trust had broken down” between them.
The move followed Sheldon’s decision to raise concerns about the culture of the CQC last November on giving evidence at the Mid-Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust’s public inquiry into the deaths of dozens of patients.
Last month, the Independent revealed that Williams had subsequently raised questions about the whistleblower’s mental state with senior officials at the Department of Health and asked former health secretary, Andrew Lansley, to remove her from the board on the day that she gave evidence to the inquiry.
Giving her own evidence yesterday, Williams made similar claims again but withdrew and apologised for making them public after demands to do so were made by Labour MP, Valerie Vaz.
Williams likewise admitted that it had been “inappropriate” to both commission a psychiatric report on Sheldon without consulting her and fail to share the resulting three-page occupational health doctor’s letter with her.
Substantially true
However, Williams defended her efforts to get Sheldon fired, claiming that she should have made a formal complaint internally rather than speak out in public about her concerns that the CQC was putting “reputation management and personal survival” above protecting patients.
Margaret Hodge, chair of the Public Accounts Committee, found that Sheldon’s allegations were "substantially true".
Although she was not at the hearing in person, Sheldon, who is still on CQC’s board, later tweeted: “I haven’t seen it yet, but it seems that inappropriate & inaccurate information was given about me by Jo Williams.”
She continued: “My mental health has only been questioned at senior level in CQC – and only after I raised serious concerns.”
Meanwhile, Bradley Birkenfeld, a former UBS banker, has been awarded $104 million by the US tax authorities for revealing how the Swiss bank helped wealthy US citizens to evade tax.
It is believed to be the largest sum ever paid out to an individual whistleblower and was awarded under legislation intended to encourage people to expose tax evasion.
Birkenfeld’s disclosures to the Internal Revenue Service contributed to UBS agreeing to make a $780 million settlement with the US authorities, but he was also send to prison for 30 months for his own role in the scandal after pleading guilty in 2008.
