The BMA’s GP Committee said it is ‘disgusted’ by reported ‘openly racist’ comments made by the founder and CEO of clinical software firm TPP and advises practices to consider these before signing new contracts.
It has also called on Frank Hester to resign.
According to the Guardian, Frank Hester told a 2019 TPP company meeting that Hackney MP Diane Abbott makes you ‘want to hate all black women’ and that she ‘should be shot’.
In an emergency motion debated in response to the reports, the GP Committee (GPC) voted last week that it was ‘disgusted by the reported violent, openly racist and misogynistic comments’.
Based on the motion, the GPC also ‘advises GP practices to consider Hester’s comments prior to signing new contracts with TPP’.
Noting that Mr Hester’s comments ‘contravene NHS England’s fit and proper person test framework’, the GPC ‘calls upon UK health boards to apply their own processes vigilantly when contracting external stakeholders whose views and values may not align with the wider professional NHS workforce’.
And finally, it ‘believes Frank Hester should resign and hand over his directorship with immediate effect’.
TPP’s product SystmOne is one of the two leading patient consultation computer systems used by more than 2,700 GP practices across England.
GPC UK co-chairs Dr Alan Stout and Dr Andrew Buist said: ‘This emergency motion makes clear how appalled GPs are.
‘There is no room for racism or sexism in the NHS, and the committee believes he should resign his position with immediate effect.’
TPP has been contacted for comment.
According to the Guardian, a statement from TPP said Mr Hester ‘accepts that he was rude about Diane Abbott in a private meeting several years ago but his criticism had nothing to do with her gender nor colour of skin’.
The GP Committee’s motion in full
That this meeting is disgusted by the reported violent, openly racist and misogynistic comments, made by Frank Hester, director of The Phoenix Partnership (TPP), and directed at the Rt Hon Ms Diane Abbott MP and:
- notes that his comments contravene NHS England’s fit and proper person test framework introduced in response to the 2019 Kark Review recommendations, taking into account CQC requirements in relation to directors.
- calls upon UK health boards to apply their own processes vigilantly when contracting external stakeholders whose views and values may not align with the wider professional NHS workforce.
- advises GP practices to consider Hester’s comments prior to signing new contracts with TPP.
- believes Frank Hester should resign and handover his directorship with immediate effect.
Source: BMA
A version of this article was previously published by our sister title Pulse
