Former NHS chief was 'intimidated' by calls

A former NHS boss from Staffordshire has told how she was "intimidated" by "threatening" phone calls late at night.

Susan Fisher was finance director for the primary care trust which was responsible for services at Stafford Hospital.

She told the Francis Inquiry she was emotionally affected by the pressure from managers back in 2005/6. She blamed Phil Taylor, the then finance boss at the Shropshire and Staffordshire Health Authority, for the "significant pressure" to sort out a budget deficit of more than £3.7 million.

Mrs Fisher, who is now the county manager of finance and performance at Staffordshire County Council, told inquiry chairman Robert Francis QC she would regularly receive phone calls from Mr Taylor on Friday nights asking her for updates and figures.

On some occasions her 14-year-old daughter witnessed the calls and was distressed by them.

She said on one occasion Mr Taylor asked her "to consider planning a career outside the NHS."

She described the calls as "quite intimidating."

Mrs Fisher also told the inquiry Mr Taylor was focused only on finance and not patients or services.

She said in one call he told her "to just take £2m off the prescribing budget and tell GPs they can't prescribe as much." She said Mr Taylor was not concerned with "the impact on patient care."

She added: "His approach permeated the whole of the finance team at the Strategic Health Authority.

"There was a short period when I didn't know if I was going to get a call or not and I felt that brought out in me a nervousness."

She said she accepted phone calls as being part of the job but the issues raised by Mr Taylor did not "justify" the calls.

Lawyers acting on behalf of the health authority told the inquiry Mr Taylor denied the claims.

Mrs Fisher also said the PCT had "no systematic structured way of monitoring quality type issues" and there was no requirement to tell the PCT about serious incidents.