Sir Leonard Fenwick, 70, claimed last night that he had been the victim of a witch-hunt.
An NHS boss who criticised his trust for the way it handled a sex scandal has been sacked for gross misconduct.
Sir Leonard Fenwick, 70, the health service’s longest-serving chief executive, claimed last night that he had been the victim of a witch-hunt.
He was accused of bullying, abusive behaviour and misusing resources at Newcastle upon Tyne NHS Foundation Hospitals Trust.
After an eight-month investigation, during which he continued to receive his £247,500-a-year salary, the allegations against him were found to be proven.
A file has been passed to NHS Protect, which investigates crime within the NHS, including fraud, bribery and corruption, due to the ‘serious nature of the issues’, the trust said yesterday.
The sacking of Sir Len, one of the NHS’s highest paid bosses, follows a period of turmoil at the trust. It began with the ‘Carry On Doctors’ scandal, when two married consultants were caught organising trysts on hospital property.
The male doctors and three female staff members were part of a sex ring that arranged encounters in hospital rooms using code words such as ‘cappuccino’ and ‘Marmite’.
The consultants were suspended but to the fury of Sir Len received only a ‘slap on the wrist’ last year. They were given written warnings but told they could return to work.
However, against the board’s wishes Sir Len instead negotiated their severance and relocation to another trust.
Sir Len criticised trust chairman Kingsley Smith’s handling of the matter and was unhappy that he kept his £50,000-a-year post after his tenure should have ended.
In January, Sir Len was put on ‘gardening leave’ pending an investigation.
In February, news of the earlier sex scandal was broken by the Daily Mail.
The trust denied there was any link between the scandal and the action against Sir Len.
But last night he claimed: ‘It was an orchestrated witch-hunt.’
He said that the sex scandal led to a change in the way the trust operated, and directors saw him as old-fashioned and out of touch.