COMPANY NEWS
T
he director of the National Clinical Assessment Service
(NCAS), Professor Alastair Scotland, has announced his re- tirement after 40 years.
Professor Scotland recently spoke to NHE about the history and the future of the organisation, and his longstanding
interest in issues
of the difficulties experienced by medical professionals.
He said: “It has been an enor- mous privilege to serve NCAS for the past ten years and I am im- mensely proud of what we have achieved. I have had the greatest good fortune to be able to build a terrific team with which it has been consistently wonderful to be associated.
“Together, we have never lost sight
of the underpinning driving principle NCAS’s work – public protection and the need Prof Alastair Scotland
for patients to know they receive the best possible service from the health professionals who serve them. I wish my friends and colleagues at NCAS the very best for the future.
“It was always my intention to retire from NHS practice when I reached 60, to concentrate on other interests, and I will leave NCAS in August at a time of great
opportunity for the service.”
He graduated in medicine from Aberdeen University, after which he trained in surgery, and entered public health medicine in 1983. He became consultant in pub- lic health medicine to North East Thames Regional Health Authority in 1988 and its regional medi- cal officer from 1991 to 1994, at which point he became medical director to the Trust Unit in the merged North Thames Regional Health Authority.
In 1996, Professor Scotland moved to the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, where he was its director of medical edu- cation and research. Five years later, he established the National Clinical Assessment Authority, responsible
for resolving con-
cerns about practitioner perfor- mance. The NCAA was renamed the National Clinical Assessment
Service when it merged with the NPSA in 2005. He has also served on the Calman Committee, the Ministerial Group on Junior Doctors’ Hours of Work and a num- ber of expert advisory committees. In 1996, following the publication of Lord Woolf’s report Access to Justice, he established and chaired the Clinical Disputes Forum for England and Wales, whose work led to a number of changes to the Civil Procedure Rules.
Chief Medical Officer for England, Dame Sally Davies, paid tribute to Professor Scotland, saying: “Alastair Scotland has enjoyed a long and distinguished career in the NHS, during which time he has made a real and lasting differ- ence to the lives of many individu- als. His foresight and leadership has driven the establishment and success of NCAS, a service that has benefited doctors and pa- tients alike.”
mobility retailer that sold or- thopaedic products to elderly people in their own homes has been closed down in the public interest.
A
Reo Marketing Ltd, which operat- ed from premises in Chesterfield, was wound up in the Manchester District Registry following an investigation by Company Investigations (North) of the Insolvency Service.
Investigator Scott Crighton said: “This company’s tactics were typical of those that prey on the elderly and vulnerable. The meth- ods used to get people’s trust and gain entry into people’s homes, and the conduct of salespeople once they got there, were unac- ceptable. Companies that adopt these tactics should know that Company Investigations can and will investigate and, where appro- priate, take action to put them out of business.”
It had been carrying on an almost identical business to two previous
falsely claiming to represent social services, in order to complete a sale.
Investigators found the average age of the company’s customers was 79 years.
Despite the fact many of those tar- geted suffered from physical and mental health problems, sales vis- its routinely lasted for three or more hours, with some customers re- porting they were followed around the house by the salesman or that they only agreed to a purchase to conclude the appointment.
failed companies. The company’s tactics included telesales staff who cold-called private individuals with the intention of deliberately misleading them into agreeing to a home visit, the pretext being that they were participating in a survey designed to obtain feedback on the company’s products. In reality, the
company was seeking to exploit a selling opportunity. Once inside the home, the company’s agents employed further misleading or high-pressure tactics on vulnerable people. For example, the agents made unsubstantiated claims with regard to the medical benefits of the products, on occasions
Investigators found that the com- pany achieved a turnover of £1.3m in under ten months by adopting a confusing pricing structure and offering non-existent discounts. In reality, they added mark-ups against the cost price of several hundred percent and, in one case, as high as 1,326%.
The investigation also found that the company had been in breach of both consumer & data protec- tion legislation and to have improp- erly applied VAT exemptions.
national health executive May/Jun 11 | 13
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