The former NHS chief who quit in the midst of the maternity deaths scandal walked into a lucrative job with a consultancy that has been paid millions by the Government.
Cathy Smith the former Head of Midwifery at Shrewsbury Hospital
Simon Wright left his £160,000 chief executive role with Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust last year amid the investigation into claims that dozens of babies died or suffered brain damage.
He was among several senior staff members at the trust – including its former head of midwifery and director of nursing – to walk into other senior roles following the scandal.
Just months after allegedly being pushed out as chief executive by NHS bosses, Mr Wright, 54, took up a job with a US healthcare firm which previously worked with his NHS trust.
Richard Stanton, who exposed failings at Shrewsbury and Telford after the death of his newborn daughter Kate Stanton-Davies in 2009, said Mr Wright had been ‘rewarded for failure’.
The ex-NHS boss was hired as a ‘continuous improvement consultant’ by the Seattle-based Virginia Mason Institute, awarded a £12.5million contract by ministers in 2015.
Under the five-year scheme, the US hospital was asked to drive up standards at five trusts including Shrewsbury and Telford.
Sources said the company was still providing services to some trusts as part of the scheme earlier this year, though it is not known if Mr Wright has been involved in advising the NHS.
He repeatedly sang the praises of the firm’s work while in charge of the trust, saying it had led to ‘extraordinary results’.
In a 2017 newsletter, he said: ‘The thing that strikes me most about the work of Virginia Mason is the passion of its staff to deliver change. It is everywhere within the organisation.’
During Mr Wright’s tenure, the trust was repeatedly rebuked for substandard care.
After the Mail revealed in 2018 that 63 mothers and babies were feared to have died or suffered devastating harm, Mr Wright described the report as ‘irresponsible’ and ‘fear-mongering’.
Simon Wright former NHS chief of Shrewbury Hospital (left) and Deidre Fowler former Director of Nursing (right)
When it was announced on June 3 last year that he would leave his job, it was initially said that he would be parachuted into another NHS role.
Amid questions about how he secured the new post, Mr Wright relented and said on June 18 he would no longer be taking it up and would instead be ‘taking some time with my family’.
But Companies House records now show that Mr Wright was already considering his next professional step at the time.
The Royal Shrewsbury Hospital
Three days before telling the public he would be taking some time out, his wife Jennifer, 57, was appointed the secretary of a newly created consultancy firm.
Shrewsbury and Telford’s medical director Edwin Borman
Within another two weeks – and before Mr Wright officially left his NHS post – Lawson and Wright Associates was fully incorporated. Its sole shareholders are Mr Wright and his wife, who live in a four-bedroom detached house in Congleton, Cheshire.
On Linkedin, Mr Wright said the firm ‘works across commercial and healthcare environments’ but did not list any clients.
Mr Stanton, who has been cooperating with the police on the inquiry into the trust, said: ‘Simon Wright left nothing but a catalogue of failure behind him.
There should never be a place for anyone like him to work in healthcare ever again.’
Shrewsbury and Telford’s former head of midwifery, Cathy Smith, has also landed a role at the trust which involves liaising with the hospital in Seattle.
She was criticised for having a ‘defensive attitude’ and being unwilling to learn from mistakes following the death of baby Kate.
But despite receiving a final written warning she was given the new job by the trust.
Its director of nursing Deirdre Fowler, who was paid up to £125,000 a year, left in 2019 to join Bedford Hospitals NHS Trust as director of nursing and patient services.
And Shrewsbury and Telford’s medical director Edwin Borman – who claimed in 2017 that baby death rates were no worse than anywhere else when they were up to 46 per cent higher in some categories – took up a new role at the trust overseeing improvements to clinical practice.
Midwife Heather Lort was struck off over a catalogue of serious failings in the care of baby Kate.
She was accused of failing to keep proper notes and not adequately recording Kate’s foetal heart rate.
A Nursing and Midwifery Council panel also found Lort, who had retired by the time of the hearing, admitted serious failings in her care of another baby who was stillborn in 2013.
Mr Wright did not comment. The Virginia Mason Institute said it would not comment on his employment.