Patient sexually assaulted and killed in her bed, six staff jailed including surgeon for sexually assaulting five colleagues and a culture of systemic bullying and harassment in Blackpool hospital but neither health secretary nor government blamed and BBC ignore it – imagine that had been in Inverness?

There’s a headline that could easily be misunderstood! 
https://www.lancs.live/news/lancashire-news/every-staff-member-jailed-blackpools-32488650

You could be forgiven for thinking that NHS England’s worries were confined to maternity services and to NHS Nottingham with its criminal police investigation labelled perversely ‘Operation Perth.’

After decades of centre-right, cost-cutting, government and unprotected by a centre-left SNP government, protecting public services from the worst of austerity politics, all public services in England are struggling badly and to a greater extent than, as TuS reveals on a daily basis, their equivalents in Scotland.

The above claim can be checked by searching here:

https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/

Just type in ‘NHS’ or ‘waiting’ or ‘crime’ or……………

On 4 December 2025, we reported an NHS horror story in Blackpool, barely reported in the MSM and apparently since forgotten.

Seeing the Guardian report that day on the massive shocking scandal at Blackpool Victoria Hospital, I was reminded of the media-saturated story in 2018 – 2022, when Doctor Iain Kennedy made his name exposing bullying at Raigmore Hospital in Inverness. The contrast in the media/opposition party treatment could not be sharper.

First, Blackpool:

In the Guardian yesterday following on from the above LancsLive piece in September 2025:

The report, leaked to the Guardian, follows a series of devastating incidents at the Blackpool Victoria hospital that have resulted in multiple arrests and six members of staff being imprisoned in the past two years. Two nurses were jailed for stealing drugs and unlawfully sedating patients to make their shifts easier. The trust’s leading heart surgeon was imprisoned for sexually assaulting five colleagues. In October, a coroner ruled that an elderly female patient had been sexually assaulted and unlawfully killed in her hospital bed; a murder investigation has concluded without identifying a culprit. The trust has been accused by the British Medical Association (BMA) of doing too little to combat a “toxic culture of fear” and failing to “make the necessary changes to improve conditions for doctors”. Wes Streeting, the health secretary, described the hospital’s recent failings as “abhorrent”. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/dec/03/culture-of-bullying-and-harassment-found-at-scandal-hit-blackpool-victoria-nhs-hospital

Notice how the current Health Secretary is platformed but only to join with the community in condemning the Health Trust. The previous Tory health secretary and government is not associated in any way with the scandal, even in the left-leaning Guardian. Imagine that had been in Scotland?

I can find no reports by BBC UK, England nor Lancashire. Imagine that had been in Scotland?

In Inverness, did any patients or staff die? No. Were any staff jailed? No. Did any staff have to be hospitalised? One senior member of staff did have to be hospitalised for anxiety. Imagine that had been in England?

Second, Inverness:

Instances of Scottish Government Involvement in Media Coverage based on an analysis of news articles (primarily from BBC, The Herald, Press and Journal, and Strathspey Herald) and social media discussions on X (formerly Twitter), the SG was explicitly asked to intervene, blamed, or associated with the scandal in at least 12 distinct media instances from 2018–2023. These are not exhaustive but represent major reports; the scandal’s media footprint includes dozens of articles, with SG links appearing in roughly 20–30% of them. Associations often stem from the SG’s oversight role (as NHS Scotland’s funder and regulator), while blames center on perceived delays or systemic failures.

DateMedia SourceType of AssociationKey Details
Sep 2018The Herald (open letter)Asked to interveneClinicians’ letter calls for independent SG-led probe into “bullying culture” at NHS Highland; SG responds by arranging meetings with NHS Scotland executives.
Oct 2018Press and JournalBlamedWhistleblowers accuse SG of “brushing off” concerns; NHS Highland blames SG for delaying external support amid budget shortfalls.
Oct 2018Inverness CourierAsked to interveneVictim stories prompt SG to schedule discussions with GMB union and Dr. Kennedy on bullying complaints.
Nov 2018BBC NewsAssociated (intervention)SG announces Sturrock review in response to media pressure; doctors demand “fully independent” SG action.
Nov 2018Press and Journal (timeline)AssociatedHealth Secretary Jeane Freeman travels to Inverness to oversee inquiry launch.
Mar 2019BBC NewsAssociatedSturrock report (300+ submissions) highlights SG-recognized systemic issues beyond NHS Highland.
Apr 2019The FerretBlamedSG’s financial pressures and “dysfunctional” oversight blamed for enabling bullying; Sturrock inquiry commissioned amid budget critiques.
May 2019Gov.scot (Sturrock report)BlamedReport links bullying to “government target-driven” NHS model and under-capacity, implicating SG policies.
Sep 2021BBC NewsAssociatedSG funds “healing process” review; panel reports ongoing bullying, tying it to prior SG-commissioned Sturrock findings.
Mar 2022Press and JournalAssociatedSG monitors action plan implementation; Freeman visits Inverness to check progress on anti-bullying measures.
Jun 2022BBC NewsAssociatedSG-funded payouts (£2.8m) to victims; review reiterates hundreds affected under SG oversight.
Dec 2023Strathspey HeraldBlamedUnion claims bullying “still rife” despite SG’s “Once for Scotland” policies; calls for stronger SG enforcement.

More at: https://x.com/i/grok?conversation=1996301101235109931

Note the above is not exhaustive.

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One thought on “Patient sexually assaulted and killed in her bed, six staff jailed including surgeon for sexually assaulting five colleagues and a culture of systemic bullying and harassment in Blackpool hospital but neither health secretary nor government blamed and BBC ignore it – imagine that had been in Inverness?”

  1. I think there is a ‘small country’ aspect to this.

    I recall in the memoir of a member of the first Dublin Parliament after Ireland became a republic he wrote that one of the first questions to the Taoiseach was about a phone box in a small town which was not working properly.

    I was at a conference years ago when I first heard the term ‘policy community’ in the context of Scottish education, and the speaker mentioned that it was so small in number that ‘everybody knew everyone else’.

    I think something similar is the case in the ‘Scottish’ media and Holyrood. Relatively trivial things reach an inappropriately high level of importance because some hack actually sees the relevant minister on a regular basis.

    There is also the ‘ruling class’ aspect. The Tories because of aristocratic and private school connections and Labour because of its belief that it should be in charge of Scotland cannot those the idea of not being the bosses so they engage in persistent cavilling to try to show that the Scottish Government does not work, that some ‘separate upstarts’ have usurped their rightful position.

    In the context of England, a maternity hospital oop north serving a population of oiks is of no interest to the chattering classes of Westminster, Islington and Chelsea. They did not go to school with such people nor are they members of the same clubs.

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