MP John McDonnell has joined patients’ groups in condemning a decision by NHS England to fritter away hundreds of thousands of pounds on a costly legal battle which it eventually lost against an award-winning GP.
Dr Sashi Shashikanth’s patients say he was unnecessarily targeted in a vendetta by those who led the now defunct Hillingdon Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) in West London, simply because he refused to join a Primary Care Network.
Signing up would have forced the GP’s practice to hand over wholesale confidential patient data to a private enterprise which the doctor and his patients deemed illegal under data protection rules.
Now, Hayes and Harlington MP John McDonnell has written to the Health Secretary Wes Streeting to ask who was accountable for the decision to spend significant NHS resources on the legal battle and to urge no further money is wasted in the courts.
The MP’s letter states: “There is no doubt that this case alone would have cost a significant amount of money to fight in court and so I ask who was accountable for this decision and the agreement to sign off this cost?
“Following the court judgment, I would ask that you liaise with NHSE and our Integrated Care Board to instruct them to reinstate his (Dr Shashikanth’s) contracts in line with other PCN’s and GP practices in other areas of England.
“This would avoid any further court action and the inevitable costs I would also welcome your consideration to undertake a full examination of this case to ensure that other GPs are not put in a similar position.”
In December, the GP won a landmark five-year legal battle with NHS England which went all the way to the Court of Appeal and required barristers and costly legal teams on both sides, after his contract was unlawfully terminated.
John Rogers, 80, a prostate cancer patient who leads a local practice patients’ group, said: “I’m over the moon that Dr Shashikanth won, but I’m furious at the scandalous waste of hundreds of thousands of pounds of much needed NHS money on this case which was forced on our GP who is also now heavily out of pocket for no legal reason. He deserves compensation and an investigation should get to the bottom of this outrageous episode against a highly-regarded family doctor.
“I believe the Health Secretary Wes Streeting should launch an immediate inquiry into the waste of money, the decision to sack and undermine our GP by those in charge of the CCG at the time, and into the request to hand over patient data which is at odds with data protection rules and his patients’ requests.
“I hope that Dr Shashikanth can now be treated with the respect and dignity he deserves and that his practices can flourish into the future for his patients. That would be a much better way to use taxpayers’ money and enhance care, not wasted in the courts.”
Dennis Ball, 79, a heart transplant and cancer patient, added: “This whole episode was sparked by what I can only describe as a vendetta against our GP by the previous CCG and I hope that those in charge now will put things right.”
After the GP’s contract was illegally terminated, the Hillingdon Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) also lodged a series of unfounded complaints about Dr Shashikanth to a range of key bodies including NHS England’s performance management, the General Medical Council (GMC) and the Care Quality Commission (CQC), each of which rejected the complaints.
The dispute centred on whether a letter in 2019 sent by the CCG to Dr Shashikanth had amounted to a valid contract variation, which could have obliged the GP principal to co-operate with the PCN.
Appeal Court judges ruled that the CCG had failed to give notice of a variation to Dr Shashikanth’s contract and the NHS Litigation Authority, now NHS Resolution, “erred in law in determining that the CCG were entitled to terminate the contracts”.
The ruling has broad implications for all NHS GPs and dentists as it now gives them the right to seek Judicial Review of decisions by the NHS Adjudicator if they end up in dispute with NHS England.
In a letter to the Health Secretary, copied to local MPs, practice managers state: “This case has cost the NHS and the taxpayer hundreds of thousands of pounds – we estimate half a million pounds at least – and has taken a toll on Dr Shashikanth financially who has had to fight tooth and nail to win this case and overturn his unlawful contract termination.
“We would urge you to examine this case and order a full enquiry into the circumstances of the decision of the former CCG to act in the way it did.”
Dr Shashikanth, who operates two practices with more than 8,200 patients, said: “While I am delighted to have won my case, this long and bitter battle has had a big impact my reputation and my family, not least financially.
“In my view it should never have reached this stage and the whole saga is the result of unfortunate decisions taken by the former NHS Hillingdon Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) when I opted out from joining the PCN and handing over, illegally, wholesale confidential patient data to a private enterprise.
“I thank John McDonnell for his support and I would urge the Health Secretary to take a very close look at this case which has unnecessarily cost the taxpayer hundreds of thousands of pounds at a time when other GP practices which declined to join their PCNs elsewhere in England have been operating successfully and reached local agreements.
“I urge NHS England to now fully support my two practices, so that we can provide any PCN services as well as enhanced services to our own patients, just as they have supported non PCN and non-data sharing practices elsewhere. This has always been our request.”