Hospital under pressure to open Savile inquiry (From Bucks Free Press)
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Stoke Mandeville Hospital under pressure to open Savile inquiry
1:34pm Monday 15th October 2012 in Health By Lawrence Dunhill
Hospital under pressure to open Savile inquiry
STOKE Mandeville Hospital is under increasing pressure to hold an inquiry into allegations of sexual abuse of patients by Jimmy Savile.
The hospital is also said to be facing legal action from alleged victims – as well as questions about why the TV presenter had access to his own room on the hospital site right up until his death last year.
Claims emerged last week that Savile had groped young patients at Stoke Mandeville, where he worked as a volunteer porter and fundraiser from 1969. He is thought to have raised £40 million for charity, much of which went towards the hospital's spinal injuries unit.
Reading MP Rob Wilson said: “I do not think what is alleged to have happened at Stoke Mandeville Hospital to be acceptable in a decent society.
“I have written to the chief executive of Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust today to request a full inquiry into what happened, what was known at the time, what records were kept and what is known now.
“If it is true, as alleged by ex-staff, that they were warned about Savile by hospital managers, they could be complicit in the most disturbing of crimes.
“For the sake of the hospital’s reputation, I urge the Trust not to drag its feet and act quickly. We now need openness and transparency, not the establishment closing ranks.”
The BBC has opened two separate inquiries relating to the claims about Savile.
Personal injury lawyer Liz Dux says she has been contacted by several women who want to sue over the allegations.
She is preparing cases against the BBC and Stoke Mandeville Hospital, saying even if Savile was only a volunteer he still acted as an ‘agent’, while the hospital has a duty of care to patients.
Meanwhile ex-patient Rebecca Owen, who spent several months in the hospital’s spinal injuries unit in the 1980s, has questioned why the Jim’ll Fix It star was ever given a flat within the hospital site.
Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust, which runs Stoke Mandeville Hospital, said in a statement: “We have been shocked and saddened to hear of the very serious allegations about Jimmy Savile dating back to the 1970s.
“We have no record of any complaints of this nature and would have taken swift and decisive action if this had formally been raised with us.
“In 2010/11 we participated in a multiagency review which concluded that our current safeguarding processes were robust, however we constantly assure ourselves that all the correct procedures are in place.
“We continue to cooperate fully with the police in their enquiries and have met with them to discuss their review.
“We will maintain close contact with the police and once they have reported back over the next few weeks we will look at their findings to agree whether we should follow-up with our own internal enquiry.
“We are working closely with our staff and will support them in reporting to the police should they have any information related to the allegations.
“Jimmy Savile and his team had access to a room outside of the main hospital and away from clinical areas. This was made available to them in conjunction with their fundraising activity, and was utilised by them until his death.”
On a national scale, police say Savile's alleged catalogue of abuse could have included about 60 victims and spanned six decades.
Comments(11)
Slacker
says...
4:06pm Mon 15 Oct 12
It is a shame this has come out after his death as he has no chance to defend himself in a court of law. So an inquiry should seek out the extent of the allegations and they will always be allegations rather than proven true fact but if they make the assumption that everything did happen then there is a chance to learn lessons and make damned sure this does not happen again.
Also a chance to find out if it happened who knew about it and why they covered it up - could there be prosecutions for example of corruption and receipt of bribes?
Slacker
says...
4:10pm Mon 15 Oct 12
Don't get me wrong, the victims need to be heard and compensated if necessary but in the society we live today sadly there are people who will seek to gain from such a situation especially given there is little evidence to disprove anything happened.
News reporting today currently up to 60 victims in 60 years. The true figure is probably more.
demoness the second
says...
5:56pm Mon 15 Oct 12
I am not quite sure what this dozy MP wants.
Surely the police are the ones to deal with it - it is a criminal investigation afterall.
geoffW
says...
7:16pm Mon 15 Oct 12
demoness the second wrote:There will be an inquiry at Stoke Mandeville hospital after the police investigation has been completed. This is the proper way to do things. Wilson knows that. However as soon as it is annopunced he will come out and say "They wouldn't have done it if I hadn't demanded it".
My understanding is that the hospital are not having their own inquiry but are co operating fully with the police which means impartial experts will be dealing with everything and they will have access to any records etc.
I am not quite sure what this dozy MP wants.
Surely the police are the ones to deal with it - it is a criminal investigation afterall.
.
It is "look at me" political posturing.
.
There are now too many people jumping on the bandwagon trying to get something out of this awful situation for themselves.
.
The worst thing of all is the way the tabloids are rushing round shouting "why didn't they do something", when all along THEY KNEW and did nothing themselves.
.
Does anyone really believe that they didn't know? They didn't want to be seen to be the ones sticking the knife in to a "national treasure" so they allowed it to continue. Now if it was untrue and they were making it up ... that would be fine.
demoness the second
says...
7:24pm Mon 15 Oct 12
geoffW wrote:he needs to worry about his own patch - Broadmoor has been affected too ,
demoness the second wrote:There will be an inquiry at Stoke Mandeville hospital after the police investigation has been completed. This is the proper way to do things. Wilson knows that. However as soon as it is annopunced he will come out and say "They wouldn't have done it if I hadn't demanded it".
My understanding is that the hospital are not having their own inquiry but are co operating fully with the police which means impartial experts will be dealing with everything and they will have access to any records etc.
I am not quite sure what this dozy MP wants.
Surely the police are the ones to deal with it - it is a criminal investigation afterall.
.
It is "look at me" political posturing.
.
There are now too many people jumping on the bandwagon trying to get something out of this awful situation for themselves.
.
The worst thing of all is the way the tabloids are rushing round shouting "why didn't they do something", when all along THEY KNEW and did nothing themselves.
.
Does anyone really believe that they didn't know? They didn't want to be seen to be the ones sticking the knife in to a "national treasure" so they allowed it to continue. Now if it was untrue and they were making it up ... that would be fine.
ivor
says...
12:31am Tue 16 Oct 12
~
They should wait before holding an inquiry as I fear there may be more to come out on the JS story....
~
Have you read Ivor’s blog today? Click on the “BLOGS” link at the top of the page.
Ivor'sbestfriend
says...
8:03am Tue 16 Oct 12
stevet123
says...
10:33am Tue 16 Oct 12
demoness the second wrote:the goverment should pay for all this, and let stoke manderville get on with coping with the extra patients it now has from the High Wycombe area, all because of a tory think tank with no road sense
geoffW wrote:he needs to worry about his own patch - Broadmoor has been affected too ,
demoness the second wrote:There will be an inquiry at Stoke Mandeville hospital after the police investigation has been completed. This is the proper way to do things. Wilson knows that. However as soon as it is annopunced he will come out and say "They wouldn't have done it if I hadn't demanded it".
My understanding is that the hospital are not having their own inquiry but are co operating fully with the police which means impartial experts will be dealing with everything and they will have access to any records etc.
I am not quite sure what this dozy MP wants.
Surely the police are the ones to deal with it - it is a criminal investigation afterall.
.
It is "look at me" political posturing.
.
There are now too many people jumping on the bandwagon trying to get something out of this awful situation for themselves.
.
The worst thing of all is the way the tabloids are rushing round shouting "why didn't they do something", when all along THEY KNEW and did nothing themselves.
.
Does anyone really believe that they didn't know? They didn't want to be seen to be the ones sticking the knife in to a "national treasure" so they allowed it to continue. Now if it was untrue and they were making it up ... that would be fine.
I Love Ivor
says...
1:12pm Tue 16 Oct 12
.
It is a real shame that this has come out after his death, he will never be able to defend himself and everyone will have a lasting impression that Sir Jimmy was some kind of sexual predator!
.
Like i said, i met him on a few occasions and never had any issues with him, very eccentric but nothing more!
Darren Hayday
says...
1:31pm Tue 16 Oct 12
stevet123 wrote:hear, hear! - It's just as shocking to hear about the terrible stories coming from people who have to go to Stoke - than it is from hearing the stories of Jimmy Savile. Who I am disgusted with and also the people commenting on here that it was acceptable in those days, etc
demoness the second wrote:the goverment should pay for all this, and let stoke manderville get on with coping with the extra patients it now has from the High Wycombe area, all because of a tory think tank with no road sense
geoffW wrote:he needs to worry about his own patch - Broadmoor has been affected too ,
demoness the second wrote:There will be an inquiry at Stoke Mandeville hospital after the police investigation has been completed. This is the proper way to do things. Wilson knows that. However as soon as it is annopunced he will come out and say "They wouldn't have done it if I hadn't demanded it".
My understanding is that the hospital are not having their own inquiry but are co operating fully with the police which means impartial experts will be dealing with everything and they will have access to any records etc.
I am not quite sure what this dozy MP wants.
Surely the police are the ones to deal with it - it is a criminal investigation afterall.
.
It is "look at me" political posturing.
.
There are now too many people jumping on the bandwagon trying to get something out of this awful situation for themselves.
.
The worst thing of all is the way the tabloids are rushing round shouting "why didn't they do something", when all along THEY KNEW and did nothing themselves.
.
Does anyone really believe that they didn't know? They didn't want to be seen to be the ones sticking the knife in to a "national treasure" so they allowed it to continue. Now if it was untrue and they were making it up ... that would be fine.
You should be ashamed of yourselves.
There are many more people out there that are being protected for all sorts of crooked and twisted vices/practices. It's about time that they were all 'outed' and treated like the rest of the public. Not protected because of their status or from political friends, etc
Stalemate says...
3:31pm Mon 15 Oct 12