THE nurse found dead after being duped by a prank call from two Australian radio DJs to the hospital treating the Duchess of Cambridge was reassured a number of times by senior management, it said last night.
John Lofthouse, the chief executive of King Edward VII Hospital in London, where the pregnant royal was treated last week, made his comments after it was reported Jacintha Saldanha, 46, had left a suicide note criticising staff.
Mr Lofthouse said the nurse was the victim of a "cruel trick" by presenters from 2DayFM. But he said senior staff did not blame her and offered her time off and counselling.
In reply to MP Keith Vaz, Mr Lofthouse said: "Jacintha believed the call was genuine, and she felt it appropriate to put the call through. We stand by her judgment. Following the hoax call, Jacintha was reassured on a number of occasions by senior management that no blame was attached to her actions and that there were no disciplinary issues involved."
Mrs Saldanha, from Bristol, was found hanging in her nurses' quarters last Friday. The nurse transferred the DJs who posed as the Queen and Prince of Wales, to a colleague who described the condition of the Duchess of Cambridge during her hospital stay for severe pregnancy sickness.
Staff gathered at the hospital for a private memorial service and a mass is due to be held at Westminster Cathedral today.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article