the times | Saturday August 1 2020 2GM 35
News
An NHS chief linked to Britain’s worst
maternity scandal who was convicted
for faking his CV has been advising hos-
pitals and working in the health sector.
Neil Taylor, 57, is running a consult-
ancy business used by large private
healthcare companies and claims to
give advice to hospitals despite con-
cerns over his former role at the
Shrewsbury and Telford NHS Trust,
which is being investigated for four
decades of poor maternity care.
Taylor is running three health con-
sultancy businesses and another invol-
ved with orthopaedic care. One of
them, MDT Health Consulting Ltd,
advises Servelec, a digital healthcare
SERGE CHAPUIS/MIRAVAL; AVALINE/MEGAMaternity scandal boss advising NHS
Neil Johnston Midlands Correspondent provider that supplies NHS trusts.
MDT Health says it specialises in de-
veloping healthcare strategies and clin-
ical planning, working directly with
doctors and project management.
It claims to have held a workshop
with the directors of a multinational
healthcare company and worked dir-
ectly with at least six NHS trusts.
Taylor led the Royal Shrewsbury
Hospital for four years before it merged
with the Princess Royal Hospital in Tel-
ford. He said he had a first-class degree
from the University of Nottingham to
secure the £112,000-a-year post in
charge of the new trust in 2003, when
he had only “one or two A levels”.
He was caught out during a salary re-
view in 2004 when he produced a
homemade diploma for a BA in busi-
ness administration and economics
with a crude copy of the university logo.
He pleaded guilty to one charge of
obtaining a pecuniary advantage by de-
ception and one of attempting to com-
mit the same offence and was given a
12-month suspended prison sentence
by Shrewsbury crown court in 2005.
He is one of a string of chief execu-
tives who could face questions over his
role at the trust, which is now at the
centre of an inquiry into the country’s
worst maternity department. More
than 1,800 cases where babies or their
mothers may have died or suffered seri-
ous harm are being investigated. An in-
itial review into the Shrewsbury and
Telford Hospital NHS Trust in 2017looked at 23 cases but has repeatedly
expanded and reached more than 1,000
cases this year.
Police have announced a criminal in-
vestigation into care at the trust and the
independent review led by Donna Ock-
enden, a midwife, recently identified
another 496 families.
The review was commissioned in
2017 by Jeremy Hunt, health secretary,
at the time, after concerns were raised
by the parents of Kate Stanton-Davies
and Pippa Griffiths, who died shortly
after birth in 2009 and 2016 respective-
ly. Since a renewed appeal more
parents have come forward to share
their experiences of care at the trust.
This week it emerged that Simon
Wright, another chief executive of thehospital trust who was criticised by
regulators, had been given a job advis-
ing on patient safety at a large hospital
group.
Richard Stanton, the father of Kate-
Stanton Davies, said yesterday that
former bosses of the trust were being
“rewarded for failure”. He added: “It is
becoming more and more clear that
chief executive after chief executive left
a legacy that failed patients, and in
particular patient safety.”
Mr Stanton said that action was
needed to prevent those who were be-
hind the failings from returning to work
in the healthcare sector.
Taylor said that after taking legal
advice he could not comment until the
inquiry had concluded.C
ameron Diaz
and Drew
Barrymore
have fans
worldwide for
their acting talents but
their ventures into
winemaking have failed
to impress the experts
(Jack Malvern writes).
Sommeliers have
spoken against the trend
of celebrity-endorsed
wines, saying it usually
means a mass-produced
product that the star inquestion would be
unlikely to drink
themselves.
Victoria James, who
has worked as a
sommelier in New York,
said that she knew that
actors and musicians
often had good taste in
wine. “How then were
you bamboozled into
putting your name on a
wine that I cannot
imagine you actually
drinking yourself ?” she
asked in Esquire. Shereferred to a blind
tasting by her fellow
sommelier Michael
Madrigale, who said
that a £40 pinot
grigio named after
Barrymore was “like
drinking water with
lemon in it, super
diluted”.
Mr Madrigale,
founder of the wine
app Grande Cuvée,said that some actors’
wines were respectable,
such those produced at
Brad Pitt and Angelina
Jolie’s estate at Château
Miraval in Correns,
southeast France. The
couple continue to
produce wine despite
their divorce in 2016.
“Most of these people
are in the music
industry or the movieindustry,” Mr Madrigale
told The Times. “I think
this is a way for them to
have a widget to sell.
People within these
industries aren’t making
the money they used to,
so this is their
manager saying, ‘Get
into wine.’”
Mr Madrigale said
that Diaz’s wine label
Avaline, which claims tobe a “clean wine” free
from additives, was a
marketing exercise.
“It’s like Gwyneth
Paltrow’s [lifestyle
website] Goop. It’s pure
profit, purely brand
driven,” he added.Experts pour scorn
on celebrity wines
gfBrad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s château, Cameron Diaz, left, and other famous wine namesbea“cleanwine”free