Hospitals given THREE MONTHS to change in wake of Jimmy Savile sex abuse scandal

HOSPITAL bosses have been given three months to implement a raft of recommendations in the wake of the Jimmy Savile sex scandal.

Jimmy Saville prepares for The Bupa Great North Run on October 1, 2006 in Newcastle, EnglandGETTY

The disgraced former DJ was found to have abused 63 patients at Stoke Mandeville hospital

The government’s health regulator, Monitor, has written to every NHS foundation hospital trust in the country informing them they have until June to act on the findings of a report into the late BBC presenter's depraved abuse.

An investigation into how the disgraced entertainer managed to abuse 63 people at Stoke Mandeville hospital found the former TV star and DJ's actions were an “open secret”.

Its findings, including that nine informal complaints of abuse were not taken seriously, were published last month.

Now, the head of the regulator, David Bennett, has made public a letter to all foundation trusts demanding they “take any action necessary to protect patients, staff, visitors and volunteers”.

Former DJ and television presenter Jimmy Savile with a former patient at Stoke Mandeville Hospital, 23rd January 1980GETTY

Savile, pictured here with a former patient at Stoke Mandeville hospital in 1980

Everyone within the NHS has a responsibility to make sure that nothing like the shocking abuse carried out by Jimmy Savile can ever happen again

Monitor spokesperson

The letter tells hospital bosses: “Given the severity of this issue, it is important to be able to demonstrate the improvements made to safeguarding across the system. 

“I therefore ask that you respond to this letter by 5pm Monday, 15 June 2015 with an overview of any necessary actions that you have taken as a result of the recommendations in the report or, where these are in progress, the date by which they will be completed,” the Monitor chief executive adds. 

Among the recommendations is a demand that hospital trusts better manage visits by celebrities, VIPs and other official visitors. 

It also makes clear that trusts should repeat security checks on staff every three years and asks that hospitals reassess their links with celebrities to ensure the NHS brand is not put at risk.  

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said at the time of the report that the responses from hospitals would feed into the Government’s “ongoing work to tackle child sexual exploitation”.

A Monitor spokesperson said: “Everyone within the NHS has a responsibility to make sure that nothing like the shocking abuse carried out by Jimmy Savile can ever happen again. 

“We expect trusts to take appropriate steps as a result of the report. 

"If a trust doesn’t, we may need to investigate whether there are problems with how the trust is being run.”

The Department of Health (DoH) said today it expected all the hospitals to comply with the deadline, with a spokeswoman adding that all trusts were “committed” to making changes.

But the DoH confirmed officials had not prepared sanctions in the event that trusts failed to respond, or punishment for those hospitals deemed not to have adequately responded to the request.

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