Royal Surrey calls in police

Royal Surrey County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust has asked its regulator and the police to investigate “potentially irregular transactions.”

The trust’s associate director for informatics, Peter Lewis, was suspended in November and dismissed in December following unspecified allegations from an un-named external source.

A Royal Surrey County Hospital spokesperson told eHealth Insider the trust had referred the matter to Monitor and the police and “the latter are now conducting an investigation.”

In a further statement, chief executive Nick Moberly said: “A senior manager was excluded from the trust in November 2011 following allegations from an external source regarding the procurement of services.

“An investigation and disciplinary hearing was carried out and as a result the member of staff was dismissed from the trust for gross misconduct with immediate effect in December 2011.

“The reasons for the dismissal included breaching the trust’s standards of business conduct policy and our standing financial instructions.

“This concerns in total approximately £600,000 worth of spend within informatics. This level of spend includes £200,000 of unbudgeted spend on one IT project and £400,000 relating to projects which have been placed on hold pending further review.

“An independent review of the trust’s current financial systems and governance arrangements has been carried out and a number of recommendations will be presented to the trust’s audit committee.

“As a result, it is likely that there will be a number of changes to the trust’s controls and management processes.”