Peter Bradshaw: The flaws that Savile exploited in NHS remain

Between 1968 and 1992, the DJ sexually abused patients, residents staff and visitors at a plethora of institutions. Principal among these – and the subject of a new independent report – was Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Buckinghamshire. Here, he is believed to have sexually assaulted 63 people, the youngest being just eight-years-old. His crimes included rape and half his victims were under 16. His quarries included a paraplegic 19-year-old and a pregnant woman in her 20s.

Savile was a highly noticeable, attention-seeking, eccentric individual with a distinctive celebrity persona. Through his volunteering and undoubted fundraising capacity he was able to gain access to both the NHS and the vulnerable people who became his victims during a barely credible period that saw him subject innocent individuals to perverse exploitation.

The report by Dr Androulla Johnstone catalogues Savile’s extreme predatory behavior and the abject failure by the hospital to maintain its duty of care. He worked seemingly as a lowly and submissive hospital porter, yet was given a room in a staff residence and a set of keys – effectively giving him unbridled, managerially-sanctioned access to the entire institution in which to pursue his heinous crimes.

But how did he get away with his sexual proclivities? Well, Savile was a champion of good causes whose reputation and perceived personal qualities gained him wide and respected acclaim. That he was the nation’s most inexhaustible sex offender was never properly detected in his lifetime simply because of his skill as a confidence trickster.

The tendency in the NHS is to hush up lapses – whether they be clinical or, as in this case, triggered by a notorious benefactor who might raise untold amounts of money to supplement state funding. His crimes generated a knowing managerial snigger. “Jim inflicts it” they said and overlooked his idiosyncrasies simply because he was the nation’s laughable northern treasure, capable of delivering those shedloads of much-needed cash.

Savile’s conduct rendered bare the safeguarding arrangements in the NHS and the deficiencies of its complaints procedure. Managers suspected Savile’s aberrations and he had a reputation as a lecher, yet his plausible, pathological lying always secured him the benefit of the doubt. However, despite his clown-like image, his weird yodel and wacky catchphrases he was nevertheless a cunning and highly intelligent manipulator who was a reputedly a member of Mensa.

In her report, Dr Johnston confirmed Saville’s reputation as a lascivious nuisance. Yet, despite informal and formal allegations against him, his accusers were never believed. Claims about him were thus played down even when in 1977 one from a parent of a patient was of a magnitude that warranted police involvement.

The NHS has weak systems of reporting failure because of the inherent fear of litigation against it. That said, in this current politically-correct era it is unlikely Savile could have continued his offending. There have been improvements in the complaints procedure since the time of Savile’s most intense illegal activity. Additionally, sexual innuendo of the kind that prevailed then would not be tolerated. However, in the main the NHS still investigates itself so there will always be a problem in unearthing the absolute truth.

Human error is inevitable in a service that does risky things, but legislating against the eventualities of a Savile-like character is perhaps impossible. He was one of a small subset of the population who are charmingly cunning and see no harm in what they have inflicted upon others. In short, he was a bloke who might confidently sell stair carpet to the owner of a bungalow.

The NHS has a blame culture that is deeply ingrained, but Savile eluded it. Rather than trying to estimate the reduction of risk, the tendency in the NHS when things go awry is to find a culprit. In Savile’s case he insinuated himself into the position of a pseudo employee, but his star qualities and public standing elevated him beyond suspicion.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has called for regulators and NHS trust leaders to review safeguarding procedures in the wake of these latest revelations that condemn the “weak systems” of reporting that permitted a perverted luminary to abuse scores of people in NHS hospitals over so many years.

As Savile’s epitaph read apocryphally: “It was good while it lasted”. Nevertheless, the question endures, why did 
it last?

Professor Peter Bradshaw is an emeritus professor in Health Policy at the University of Huddersfield.