Hospital boss who blamed Covid-19 outbreak on staff pictured without mask

A hospital trust chief executive who blamed staff not wearing masks or social distancing for a coronavirus outbreak that closed its A&E unit has been pictured herself without a face mask while at the hospital.

In an emailed rebuke to staff, accusing them of a failure to take precautions, Sarah Tedford warned that “some of us are not demonstrating the behaviour we should be”.

However, a photograph of a Q&A session posted on Hillingdon hospital NHS foundation trust’s Facebook page on 2 July – the day before the email was sent – showed Tedford and a colleague without face masks, while seated in front of a sign which read: “You must wear a face covering during your time in hospital.”

In her email to staff, seen by the Guardian, Tedford wrote: “I am told some of you are not wearing appropriate masks and you are not adhering to social distancing. This has resulted in an outbreak on a ward where our staff have contracted Covid-19. If you do not follow the guidance we cannot keep you safe. I don’t like wearing a mask, but it would be irresponsible of me not to do so.”

Five days later, on 8 July, Hillingdon hospital, in north-west London, which serves Boris Johnson’s constituency, stopped letting patients attend its emergency department or accepting any new emergency admissions after 70 of its staff had to self-isolate.

Tedford was also pictured not wearing a mask in a post on the trust’s Facebook page on 30 June, illustrating another Q&A session. By contrast, a picture posted on 25 June shows the trust’s community governance midwife wearing a face mask at an apparently similar event in a similar setting.

The Guardian understands some staff are unhappy that Tedford was pictured without a face mask at the hospital the day before she chastised staff, saying they should be “leading by example”.

The trust is already under scrutiny for allowing a training session for nurses to go ahead as a physical event on 30 June. The Guardian revealed on Wednesday that an investigation has identified the event as the source of the coronavirus outbreak at the hospital after a nurse who attended unwittingly infected 16 others in what was described by a doctor as a “super-spreading event”. Most medical training in the NHS is currently being done online to avoid the risk of infection.

The trust has not responded to questions about why Tedford did not wear a mask in the instances cited, saying only: “There is an ongoing investigation into the outbreak of Covid-19 at Hillingdon hospital. Our priority is to maintain safe and high quality care, and the trust is taking appropriate actions to reduce transmission in line with Public Health England guidance.”