The Christie: World-renowned NHS centre downgraded by watchdog

The Christie is Europe's largest cancer centre

A world-renowned cancer centre hit by whistleblowing concerns over alleged bullying has been downgraded by the health watchdog.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) told The Christie NHS Foundation Trust in Manchester it "requires improvement" in safety and leadership.

A former trust nurse told the BBC leaders had intimidated staff to stop them voicing concerns to inspectors.

The trust said it was working hard to ensure staff felt supported.

Rebecca Wight worked at The Christie - Europe's largest cancer centre - from 2014 but quit her role as an advanced nurse practitioner in December, claiming her whistleblowing attempts had been ignored.

She told BBC Newsnight the trust had attempted to manipulate the inspection by intimidating those who wished to paint an honest picture.

"The well-led inspection was basically run by The Christie," she said.

"The CQC requested a few forums with clinical staff. Those forums were infiltrated by leaders.

"The forum I went to was attended by senior leaders in the executive team."

Ms Wight said it was done "to intimidate staff to not speak up or maybe not speak openly about leadership".

Rebecca Wight left The Christie in December

Ms Wight said she and others wrote to the CQC to warn inspectors they were only getting a carefully controlled and inaccurate picture.

As a result, an off-site session was arranged by the CQC, she said, "for people to come anonymously and speak to them".

Roger Kline, an NHS workforce and culture expert from Middlesex University Business School, told BBC Newsnight there was a culture at The Christie which was "unwelcoming of people raising concerns".

He said: "The trust response is more likely... to see the person raising the concerns as the problem rather than the issues they have raised," adding this was "not good for patient care".

Following the downgrading of the trust's rating, Mr Kline said leaders should now consider their positions, adding: "I think for a trust like The Christie, a small specialist trust, any form of downgrading is a significant problem."

Roger Kline said there was "poor governance" at The Christie

The Christie had been rated as "outstanding" in its previous two CQC inspections.

Downgrading the trust's rating to "good" following its latest inspection, the CQC criticised The Christie's workplace culture, highlighting that staff did not always feel listened to.

It followed an NHS England review in February 2022 which found the trust had been "defensive and dismissive" when staff raised concerns about bullying and a £20m research project.

The CQC said while there was some "outstanding practice" at The Christie - and praised its commitment to research and innovation to improve cancer patients' outcomes - a number of improvements were required, notably in safety and leadership.

The report said: "Very senior executives were heavily invested in the promotion and protection of the trust's reputation.

"This impacted negatively on some staff; staff did not always feel supported and valued.

"A minority of staff expressed reservations about raising concerns and others did not always feel listened to."

'Important work'

The CQC's Northern operations director Ann Ford said: "Although the trust had made some changes to improve the culture, more work needs to be done to address the issues we identified."

She thanked staff who came forward to give feedback, adding: "I know speaking up in these circumstances isn't easy but it's important it happens."

Ms Ford praised medical care at the trust, saying "staff treated people with compassion and kindness, respected their privacy and dignity and met people's individual needs".

They also provided emotional support to people, families and carers, she added.

"However, they didn't always carry out risk assessments in a timely manner which potentially put people at risk of harm."

Ms Ford praised The Christie's "research and innovation to improve outcomes for people with cancer and the trust and everyone involved should be proud of that important work".

BBC Newsnight put the claims about how the inspection process was handled to The Christie but it declined to comment, saying it was a matter for the CQC.

Trust chief executive Roger Spencer said: "We are pleased the CQC has rated us 'good' despite the difficulties the NHS has faced over the past few years.

"Demand for cancer services has continued to rise, resulting in us treating more patients than ever before.

"We are working hard to make the improvements that have been highlighted by the CQC, ensuring that all our staff feel supported and valued and I thank all of them for continuing to put patients at the centre of everything we do."

BBC Newsnight understands Mr Spencer wrote to staff on Thursday ahead of the CQC report's publication, pointing out that inspectors had advised the trust to continue its plan "to ensure that our staff feel supported and valued and are able to speak up to raise concerns".

Additional reporting by Emily O'Sullivan, Charlotte Rowles, Lynette Horsburgh and Ian Shoesmith