If you follow National news in any way, you won’t have missed that a certain Frank Hester, owner of The Phoenix Partnership (TPP), has been front and centre for a few days.
It’s been widely reported that he is accused of stating that Diane Abbott, the first black female Member of Parliament in Britain, incited in him a desire to “hate all black women” and suggested she “should be shot.”
Remarks eventually labelled as “racist and wrong”
These remarks were eventually labelled as “racist and wrong” by the Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, who initially hesitated to use the term.
A spokesperson for Mr Hester said, “Mr Hester has made clear that while he was rude, his criticism had nothing to do with her gender nor the colour of her skin.”
Largest Conservative Party donor
The fact that Hester is the largest donor to the Conservative Party in recent history – having given them £10m: £5.17m through his IT company TPP, as well as a £5m personal donation – has brought his comments into focus.
The Party has so far resisted numerous calls for them to return the money.
Patient record system
And the connection to the Isle of Wight?
Well, if you have a GP on the Island, your records are being handled by the patient record system that TPP sells – SystmOnline.
It’s highly possible that you’ve been using this system for years, not noticing the TPP logo, top right, when you login. Why would you? Your focus is your patient records, not the company providing the system.
Hester the 100th richest person in the UK
It’s software systems like this that have made Frank Hester tremendously wealthy, with the Sunday Times estimating him to be 100th richest person in the UK, with a £415m fortune – helped in no small way by receiving more than £400m of NHS and prison contracts in the last eight years.
Collective decision
Obviously, when the Isle of Wight GPs made the collective decision to place Islanders’ patient records on Frank Hesters’ company platform, none of this was public, as Hester’s comments only emerged this week.
Limited choice
The choice, it seems, of patient systems is limited, with the only one widely used competitor being EMIS. The Island’s GPs having a single supplier brings advantages, like locum (temporary) doctors being able to easily switch between different surgeries without having to switch between systems.
However, since Hester’s comments emerged, many within the UK healthcare sector have been clear in their condemnation of the comments, with some calling for a boycott of TPP.
