CQC has considered this request in accordance with your subject access rights under section 7 of the DPA.

Care Quality Commission Citygate Gallowgate Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 4PA Fax: 03000 200 240 information.access@cqc.org.uk www.cqc.org.uk 15 December 2015 Our Ref: CQC IAT 1516 0575 Dear Ms Linton I write in response to your correspondence dated 3 November 2015 in which you made a request for information in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA). CQC has considered this request in accordance with your subject access rights under section 7 of the DPA. Section 7 of DPA provides individuals with a right to know what personal data an organisation holds about them. This right of access is commonly known as subject access. For information to be personal data, it must relate to a living individual and allow that individual to be identified from it (either on its own or along with other information likely to come into the organisations possession). We have searched the records of our Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system for any recorded information held that is personal to you. We have attached one document held by CQC that constitutes your personal data. We can also advise you that Michelle Golden, Head of General Practice Inspection in the London area, has responded to the questions asked in your original response. Please note, as Ms Golden has since changed position within CQC, we have also consulted with current Hospital Inspectors who have responsibility for the Trust. We will now respond to each of your questions below. I would be grateful if in CQC s search for my personal data in its records, CQC would specifically disclose the following: 1) All communications (including letters and emails) and appended documents, between CQC and Hackney and City Clinical Commissioning Group that relate to me, specifically including all 1

communications between CQC and Clare Highton, CCG Chair that relate to me. CQC did not enter into any correspondence regarding you with the CCG. 2) All communications (including letters and emails) and appended documents, between CQC and reviewers contracted by Hackney and City Clinical Commissioning group, Maureen Brown and Carmel McCalmont, that relate to me. CQC did not enter into any correspondence regarding you with the CCG.. 3) All communications (including letters and emails) and appended documents, between CQC and Homerton University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust ( the Trust ) that relate to me, specifically including all communications between Michele Golden, CQC Compliance Manager London Region, and the Trust that relate to me. CQC did not enter into any correspondence regarding you with Homerton Hospital Trust. Disappointingly, I have never had substantive feedback after whistleblowing to CQC. Therefore, I would like CQC to provide a detailed account of what actions it took to follow up the disclosures that I made to Michele Golden in February 2014, about the Trust. Who in the Trust did CQC contact about my disclosures? Michelle Golden has advised us that she met with you and Rona McCandlish in February 2014 and they considered what you had told them as part of the wider inspection that was taking place at the Trust. Michelle has advised that she did not contact anyone specifically about that meeting. What Trust documents, if any, did Michele Golden and CQC examine as a result of my disclosures? Michelle Golden has advised us that she did not examine any Trust documents as a result of the meeting. What is the written record of any CQC action taken in response to my concerns? Please disclose this record. CQC has not retained the notes of the meeting. I made serious disclosures to CQC in February 2014 about my experience of whistleblowing reprisal at Homerton, and I also informed CQC about my concerns about patient safety within Homerton Hospital maternity, especially in respect of those 2

midwives I had previously raised concerns about. I also highlighted that I felt that the Trust was not identifying links between the serious incidents which these midwives were involved in after I raised concerns. Subsequently, the CQC made these claims in its inspection report of 24 April 2014: There was evidence that showed investigations and learning from the incidents had taken place. Midwives, doctors and family planning nurses told us they reported incidents without blame and were aware of the processes in place should they need to whistle blow or raise any concerns about the quality of care delivered. Can CQC disclose if as a result of my disclosures, CQC actually examined the Trust s serious incident investigation reports and other Trust governance documents to see if common factors between serious incidents were being proactively identified? At the time of the January 2014 inspection we did not examine individual serious investigation reports. This was not unique to the Homerton inspection but was our procedure at the time. In particular, as a result of my concerns that midwives I had raised patient safety concerns about were subsequently involved in serious clinical incidents which led to death and harm, did CQC take steps to establish if the Trust addressed the serious issue of my raising of concerns and the subsequent deaths and harm, despite these concerns raised? What steps, if any, did CQC take? We spoke with the Trust following all maternal deaths. We did not discuss individual staff members and how they were managed by the Trust. Please disclose if as a result of my disclosures about whistleblower reprisal, did CQC question the Trust about the way I was treated? CQC did not contact the Trust following the disclosures you made to us. If CQC asked the Trust about the Trust s handling of my concerns, what was the outcome? CQC s inspection report of 24 April 2014 refers only to evidence from the Unhappy Midwives, and makes no mention of any other whistleblower. Why did CQC not reflect my evidence to CQC, about serious whistleblower reprisal, in its inspection report? We did not mention every individual we spoke with in the content of our report. Your evidence was unique and did not reflect feedback given to the inspection team by any other member of staff. 3

I became very ill as a result of the serious reprisal that I recounted to Michele Golden. I am disturbed that CQC not only saw fit to omit this evidence, but its report positively stated that staff in maternity services felt able to raise concerns without blame. I feel this was seriously misleading and would very much like CQC to account for its omission. 4) In particular, please disclose all communications (including letters and emails) and appended documents, between CQC and the following Trust officers that relate to me: Nancy Hallett former Chief Executive Tracey Fletcher Chief Executive Tim Melville-Ross Chair Dr Martin Kuper Medical Director Joan Douglas Head of Midwifery Janet Bradley my former line manager Sheila Adam Chief Nurse and Director of Governance Katrina Erskine Consultant Obstetrician & Gynaecologist John Coakley the Trust s former Medical Director CQC is not aware of any correspondence with any of the above individuals that relates to you. 4) Please disclose all communications (including letters and emails) and appended documents, between CQC and the Nursing and Midwifery Council that relate to me and to the disclosures that I made about the unsafe practice of specific midwives. CQC is not aware of any communications between us and the NMC regarding you. 9) Please disclose all communications (including letters and emails) and appended documents, between CQC and third parties that relate to me. CQC is not aware of any communications between CQC and third parties regarding you. 10) Please disclose all communications (including letters and emails) and appended documents, between CQC and the Unhappy Midwives that relate to me. 4

Please refer to the document attached. We can also inform you that you were mentioned in an email chain between Michelle Golden and Unhappy Midwives. The information contained within this email chain that constitutes your personal data is: Email from Michelle Golden to Unhappy Midwives dated 5 February 2014: We have also offered to meet with you. Sarah Greaves has passed me your email suggesting you send an intermediary to meet with us. I must decline this and have emailed Ms Linton to do so. Email from Michelle Golden to Unhappy Midwives dated 12 March 2014: Thank you also for raising the issue of the letter Margaret Hodge shared with you and which you subsequently shared with Ms Linton. After seeking further advice from Information Rights and Public Affairs colleagues they have advised that sharing the letter with the Care Quality Commission would be unlikely to constitute a breach of confidentiality by you. I would like to apologise for any confusion this may have caused. I have also apologised to Ms Linton who has kindly forwarded me a copy of the letter. Please accept my assurances that my claim regarding the confidentiality was one made in good faith, however having now sought advice internally I accept it was incorrect. We are providing you with this information in a summary form rather than disclosing the entire document to you, because the other information contained within the email chain does not constitute your personal data. 10) Please disclose CQC reports, notes, memos and meeting minutes that relate to me, specifically including those that relate to the concerns that I raised with the Trust and with the CQC. With respect to reports, please disclose draft, preliminary, interim, and final versions, together with appended documents. CQC has not retained the notes of this meeting. We hope you find our response information useful. If you require independent advice about information rights and access to your personal information, please visit the website for the Information Commissioner s Office: https://ico.org.uk/ Guidance on what constitutes your personal data can be accessed at: 5

https://ico.org.uk/media/for-organisations/documents/1554/determining-whatis-personal-data.pdf Feedback CQC will always endeavour to provide the highest quality responses to requests for information and seek to provide responses that are as helpful as possible. We would therefore appreciate if you can complete our online feedback form by visiting the following link: http://webdataforms.cqc.org.uk/checkbox/informationaccessfeedback.aspx The information you provide will be held securely and only used for the purposes of improving the Information Rights service that CQC provide. If you are not satisfied with our handling of your request, then you may request an internal review. Please clearly indicate that you wish for a review to be conducted and state the reason(s) for requesting the review. To request a review please contact: Legal Services & Information Rights Care Quality Commission Citygate Gallowgate Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 4PA E-mail: information.access@cqc.org.uk Please be aware that the review process will focus upon our handling of your request and whether CQC have complied with the requirements of Data Protection Act 1998. The internal review process should not be used to raise further concerns about the provision of care or the internal processes of other CQC functions. If you are unhappy with other aspects of CQC s actions, or of the actions of registered providers, please see our website for information on how to raise a concern or complaint: www.cqc.org.uk/contact-us If you consider that CQC has failed to comply with the Data Protection Act 1998, you also have a right (under section 42 of the Data Protection Act 1998) to seek an assessment from the Information Commissioner s Office regarding our handling of your request for information. The contact details are: Information Commissioner's Office 6

Wycliffe House Water Lane Wilmslow SK9 5AF Telephone: 01625 545 745 Website: https://ico.org.uk/ If you have any queries please do not hesitate to contact the team on 03000 616161, or at information.access@cqc.org.uk Yours sincerely Amy Stanley Information Access Officer Legal Services and Information Rights Care Quality Commission 7