Nurse not to face disciplinary action

No punishment... Jacintha Saldanha was to face no disciplinary action into the royal prank call made by two Australian DJs an inquest heard. Picture:AP Photo/Saldanha Family Source: Supplied

A LONDON nurse that killed herself days after answering a hoax call by Australian DJs posing as members of the royal family was to have had a formal meeting with hospital senior executives over her breach of protocols.

But the then King Edward VII Hospital chief executive John Lofthouse told an inquest into her death the meeting was not to discipline the senior nurse and another but to simply go through events to learn from the mistake.

FOCUS: 2Day FM royal prank at centre of inquest into death of UK nurse Jacintha Saldanha

NOT ILL: Nurse had no history of mental illness when she was pranked by radio Djs

Jacintha Saldanha was found dead on December 7, 2012 three days after 2Day FM DJs Mel Greig and Michael Christian posed as the Queen and Prince Charles to fool the hospital nursing staff into revealing details about its royal patient, the then pregnant Duchess of Cambridge Kate.

Prince William's wife was being treated for acute morning sickness at the time.

An inquest heard the 46-year-old mother of two Ms Saldanha took the call and put it through to a ward nurse telling her colleague the Queen was on the line.

Turmoil...The family of Jacintha Saldanha. Husband of late the late nurse Benedict Barboza, second left, accompanied by his son Junal, left, daughter Lisha, second right, Labour MP Keith Vaz, centre, and an unidentified man, right, Picture:AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis Source: AP

The second nurse, whose name has been suppressed, said Ms Saldanha was distressed about the hoax and feared punishment.

But Mr Lofthouse said while some in the senior executive team did believe the pair breached patient confidentiality and clear protocols for dealing with telephone calls and thought it warranted disciplinary action, he personally felt it was just a prank.

He said: "I can categorically state there was not, that was not going to happen," he said on whether Ms Saldanha had faced disciplinary action.

He said there was to be no formal disciplining and just "reassurances" to have been discussed in a meeting with the nurses on the following Monday; her body was found days earlier on the Friday.

Mr Lofthouse said there were no "alarm bells" as to Ms Saldanha's state-of-mind and if there had been "an inkling of her fragility" he would have physically and metaphorically put his arms around her.

He was not aware of two emails and an SMS exchange between her and the second nurse involved in which her fears and desperations were made until the week after she had been found dead. He also thought nothing of an answering machine recording of a phone call she made pulling out of a training day following the prank.

Did not give evidence... Australian DJ Mel Greig leaves the High Court in London on after attending the inquest into late nurse Jacintha Saldanha's death. Picture:AFP/ Carl Court Source: AFP

The inquest heard Ms Saldanha was already stressed after a junior staff member she had been mentoring had made a formal grievance of "bullying and harassment" against her. She in turn made a complaint against that junior member.

An investigation had followed and on the day before the hoax, Ms Saldanha had been advised she was clear of the bullying claim but the junior staff member would be returning to duties with no adverse finding against her either.

The court heard Ms Saldanha left three suicide notes one of which was directed to the junior nurse but its contents were not revealed to the court. Hospital staff said there had been no "alarm bells" into her state of mind despite her having sent three emails to colleagues, including one sent to matron and then King Edward VII Hospital chief executive John Lofthouse, specifically about how she felt about the prank call and apologizing for her actions of having put the call through to the ward that led to another nurse to reveal elements of the duchess' treatment for severe morning sickness.

In one email to a night sister, sent two days after the hoax, Ms Saldanha wrote: "… it was all my fault, I feel so ashamed of myself … I don't know how to face the bosses tomorrow."

The second nurse involved in the incident, whose name has been suppressed, told the Royal Courts of Justice inquest Ms Saldanha was initially calm after realising she had been tricked but then became increasingly panicked and said she was "terribly sorry" for putting the call through.

"It's all my fault," Ms Saldanha wrote her friend in an email the next day. "I feel very bad about this to get you involved. If there was anything I could do to mend this I would do it."

The email went on: "I'm very upset and don't know what to do. Things are all going in the wrong direction."

Full responsibility...Rhys Holleran, CEO of Southern Cross Austereo, the parent company of Sydney's 2Day FM radio station, reading a statement during a press conference in Melbourne on December 8, 2012 following the death of Jacintha Saldanha. Picture: AFP PHOTO/William WEST Source: AFP

She finished her email with: "Please blame me for this. I accept the fault was mine. I should have checked before I gave the call to you. I can only say sorry. Please accept my apologies."

She sent a second email, despite assurances from her friend it was all okay, and again apologised and said she was "ready for any punishment".

Ms Greig, who voluntarily appeared at the central London court even though she was not to be called as a witness, looked visibly upset as the nurse recounted her colleague's distress.

The nurse said the hoax call initially seemed plausible, the hospital was often used by members of the royal household but she became suspicious after a second male voice on the line (Christian) started talking about corgis.

"I started feeling nervous when the caller talked to a male voice asking about taking the corgis for a walk. This seemed inappropriate for the call," she said.

"I had never been in this situation before. I wanted to bring it to an end quickly."

The nurse also revealed Ms Saldanha had been in some conflict or difficulty with a colleague and that was "always on her mind" prior to the hoax incident.

A second nurse Araceli Arcilla, who found Ms Saldanha's body in the nurses quarters, said her friend was anxious about the call and worried she had done the wrong thing.

"Jacintha told me she was very upset and felt it was her fault," she said.

But a hospital matron Caroline Cassells said there was no punishment to be meted out even though putting the call through to the ward was a breach of hospital protocols.

She said there was never a discussion of disciplinary action.

"There was no indication that she wasn't coping, she was seen as coping," the matron said. "As a nurse you have to be able to work under pressure and she thrived off it." But the matron also said there had been an earlier unrelated dispute between Ms Saldanha and a colleague that she knew had been stressful for her.

King Edward VII hospital...A Union Flag attached to a cross stands in a planter (L) outside the King Edward VII hospital in central London on December 8, 2012. AFP/ Will Oliver Source: News Limited

At one stage there were heated exchanges across the bench between lawyers representing the hospital and the family which prompted Coroner Dr Fiona Wilcox to call for calm.

The family's lawyer John Cooper QC has queried why an experienced nurse like Ms Saaldanha had to answer phone calls out-of-hours effectively rendering her a receptionist.

The hospital now appoints a night receptionist when certain senior members of the royal family are in their wards but still require nursing staff to take calls on normal night shifts.

Earlier in the day, the court heard after the prank call 2Day FM production staff made four phone calls to seek permission to broadcast the recorded hoax call. The calls lasted 35, 18, 17 and 45 seconds and it was most likely they were answered by Ms Saldanha but the radio station had declined to reveal who made the calls, what was said if anything and who received the calls. They broadcast the call without gaining permission.

In a statement read to court, station owner Southern Cross Media Group chief executive Rhys Holleran said his network took full responsibility for the broadcast and did not apportion blame to its presenters.

"All of our staff have been deeply affected," he said in his statement. "The two presenters have each told me on a number of occasions of their distress and sadness."

Ms Saldanha's husband Benedict Barboza broke down in tears as he recounted his loving wife of 19 years and the loving mother she was to their two children Junal and Lisha who were both present in court.

There were some agitated echanges between the coroner Dr Fiona Wilcox and the lawyer representing the family John Cooper QC when he was questioning Mr Lofthouse about his handling of the matter.

At one stage Dr Wilcox also walked out of court after hearing a mobile phone SMS "bling" and angrily said she was not going to tolerate the distraction. She threatened to charge anyone with a non-silenced phone with contempt. She later returned to call satisfied everyone had checked their phones.

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