£100 million NHS debt chief is suspended from new job

Former Bromley hospital chief John Watkinson is on "gardening leave" from his job as chief executive at Cornwall trust after a report published this week following an investigation into Bromley Hospitals NHS Trust's £100 million debt.

The independent inquiry criticised the informal management style of Mr Watkinson, who was Bromley trust boss May 2003 to December 2006.

Inquiry members found the former chief used the nickname "Borat" on official trust emails. Other senior colleagues were known as "Gibbo" and "Nurse Gladys" and abused their use of the internet to send cartoons.

This "immature" attitude was in breach of the trust's code of conduct and was to blame for the hospital not taking its finances seriously, it said.

The trust did not realise it was in such a financial mess until the middle of 2007 because of " inadequate" scrutiny of reports.

Michael Taylor, who led the investigation into the south London hospital, says the trust will never be able to pay back its debt and that Mr Watkinson and members of his executive team would face disciplinary action if they were in their jobs today.

South West Strategic Health Authority and Royal Cornwall Hospital Trust are now investigating financial management under Mr Watkinson to establish whether the issues of competence and behaviour have also occurred in Cornwall, where Mr Watkinson took up his post in January 2007.

But senior medical staff believe Mr Watkinson was the subject of an "orchestrated attack". Marna Blundy from West Cornwall Healthwatch said the decision to investigate was "astonishing".

She said: "John has overseen a huge turnaround with RCHT, both in finances and in attitudes."