Following the publication of stage 1 of the Public Inquiry into the crimes of David Fuller, Greg, alongside other MPs in the area covered by the Maidstone & Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust made a joint statement. They expressed their thanks to Sir Jonathan Michael for his thorough work throughout the inquiry.
The MPs ask that the Government, the NHS and the Maidstone & Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust accept and act on the recommendations of Sir Jonathan’s report in full and without delay.
The statement in full can be read below:
Statement by MPs covered by Maidstone & Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust on Independent Inquiry Report into David Fuller
As MPs in the area covered by the hospitals in which Fuller carried out his crimes, and with many of his victims’ families as our constituents, we together demanded that the Secretary of State establish this Public Inquiry. It was vital to ensure that the conditions which allowed Fuller to operate undetected cannot be repeated. This in no way diminishes the responsibility for the depraved acts which rests with Fuller alone and for which he will rightly die in prison.
We are grateful to Sir Jonathan Michael for the serious and thorough approach that he has taken. We recognise the care he and his team have taken to give victims’ families the opportunity to testify, and the harrowing nature of much of the evidence they had to sift through.
Fuller’s crimes took place undetected over a period of decades. The failures of security and supervision that allowed Fuller to commit his crimes without suspicion are laid bare in this report. They are a wake-up call to hospitals everywhere. There was nothing unique about Maidstone & Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust during these decades, and the crimes took place under many different managements. That is why it is so important that these lessons are applied across the whole NHS.
The Government, the NHS and the Maidstone & Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust must accept and act on the recommendations of Sir Jonathan’s Report without delay. The case of Fuller has shown that it is necessary to act to give much more secure protection to the deceased against the possibility of anyone of such depraved intent having access to them.
NHS England have asked the current Chief Executive and Board of Maidstone & Tunbridge Wells to implement these recommendations. We support that request. The current Chief Executive, who was appointed in 2018, is one of the most capable leaders in the NHS and has transformed the performance of the Trust. It has become a top performer on cancer treatment - MTW is the only NHS Trust in the country to deliver the 62-day cancer treatment standard every month over 4 years; it is in the top 5 trusts in the country for emergency care (against the four-hour standard); and is the first acute trust in the country to treat the backlog of long-waiting patients built up over the pandemic. We believe that the important work of implementing the recommendations of the report can best be done by building on the experience of effective turnaround.
Rt Hon Greg Clark MP – Tunbridge Wells
Tracey Crouch CBE MP – Chatham & Aylesford
Helen Grant OBE MP – Maidstone & The Weald
Rt Hon Laura Trott MBE MP* - Sevenoaks
Rt Hon Tom Tugendhat MBE MP* – Tonbridge & Malling
Helen Whately MP* – Faversham & Mid Kent
Nusrat Ghani MP* – Wealden
Huw Merriman MP* – Bexhill & Battle
*statement made in constituency MP not ministerial capacity
