Muslim Women’s Council held an event at Pearl’s Tearoom in Bradford, on Monday 19th May.
The session was led by Dr Maxwell Mclean PhD, former Chairman of Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, raising awareness of his experience of dishonesty and inequality in Bradford’s hospital services.
Dr Maxwell Mclean, former Chairman at Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (BTHFT), was forced out of his role for exposing serious patient and staff safety failings at the hospital. Those failings were proven by an independent investigation and included preventable new-born deaths.
He served as Chair of the Trust from May 2019 until October 2023. The Trust provides hospital services to a large population in West Yorkshire. He was part way through his second 3-year term as Chair when his contract was unceremoniously brought to a premature end, after he had raised serious concerns to the CEO and even to the relevant regulators, NHS England through its Regional Director, and the Care Quality Commission. Those concerns were about the serious failings at a senior level (in particular the CEO) within the Trust, that contributed to increased and preventable infant mortality, endangered patient safety and undermined staff wellbeing. In the course of fulfilling his contractual and statutory/constitutional duties as Chair (in particular, holding the CEO to account), he was forced to resign or be dismissed, by an unlawfully constituted Board.
This powerful session addressed systemic issues in NHS leadership, focusing on the lack of transparency, persistent inequalities in care delivery, and the urgent need for accountability within hospital services. The attendees did not shy away from uncomfortable truths. Women provided examples of dishonesty and neglect across the NHS and shared personal experiences of how these failings disproportionately harm already-marginalised communities, in particular the South Asian community.
This session was a necessary wake-up call, underscoring how leadership failures are not just abstract issues, they cost lives.
Dr Mclean was honoured to be offered the opportunity to speak to MWC about what he had discovered, and to hear of the experiences of women suffering poor care at BTHFT.
He said "It was hugely important to me to hear of the heartbreaking failings in healthcare service that so many of those women present had experienced. There was a common theme emerging - a failure to learn lessons and to make the changes needed to provide safe care to women in our hospitals. So many of these devastating experiences could and should have been avoided. The evidence I have points to disproportionately poor care of Asian women in Bradford's hospitals. Asian women are not being well served, particularly in maternity care. This is inequality. Yet, when I tried to put this right - I was told to leave with immediate effect. The Hospital Board of Directors are covering up serious patient safety failings and it has to stop. I am taking legal action on behalf of our communities in Bradford. Thank you to Muslim Women's Council for listening to me, talking with me, and offering their support to me to do the right thing as I continue to fight this injustice in the Courts."
Bana Gora, Chief Executive of Muslim Women's Council said: “Sessions like this remind us that accountability isn’t optional—it’s a duty. If the NHS is to serve everyone equally and justly, leadership must be transparent, ethical, and held to the highest standards. This was a much-needed topic that captured real-life stories of those that have been affected and have lost children due to negligence”.
