Truth Be Told Doctors

How many coppers does it take to change a light bulb?

One, but he's never there when you need him.

THEY LAUGH My mum told me that. She did!

Mitch?

See you later, boys.

We need to talk before we go in.

Look, Rob, it's great that you're taking it so serious,

but relax, mate.

It's going to be a walk in the park.

I don't think I'd be so relaxed if I was in your boots.

-What's the worst they'll do? Slap on the wrist?

-How about dismissal?

It will never come to that.

Well, I wish I had your confidence.

They've got to prove that I've done something wrong first, and I haven't.

So let them do their worst.

Sergeant Mitchum.

That'll be me.

I understand interview room three has been allocated to us.

If you could lead the way.

Why not?

Sooner this farce is over, the better, eh?

Morning, Heston.

-Heston, tea? They've got your favourite?

-Thank you, I'm fine.

-Jim, tea or coffee?

-Coffee, thanks.

So where do you want me?

Anywhere you like.

Thought we'd do this in the round.

Less adversarial.

Yes. A Significant Event Audit has many benefits -

gathering information,

identifying any lessons that can be learnt.

-It's not about apportioning blame.

-Mm-hm.

So why do I feel like I'm in the dock?

MACHINE BUZZES

It's the 29th of September.

The time is 9:45.

This is an initial interview being carried out by Inspector Angela Gray

in response to a death following police contact.

-Also present are...

-Sergeant Alan Bryson.

-Sergeant William Mitchum.

-Sergeant Rob Hollins, federation rep.

We're here to ascertain the facts around the events

of Tuesday, the 23rd of September,

when Sergeant Mitchum first came into contact

with Miss Catriona Shailes,

and the subsequent events that followed.

Great. Only, can we get a shift on?

I've got real police work to do.

And you don't think that rooting out bad practice

is real police work?

Bad practice?

I think you've might've spent

just a little too long stuck behind a desk, ma'am.

I'm not the one under investigation, Sergeant.

So, let's start with your version of events.

Heston, would you like to get the ball rolling?

Um, yes. Of course.

The top page is the timeline of my dealings with Miss Shailes

and pages two to five are print outs of her medical notes.

-Mandy, what are you doing here?

-I want to sit in.

In fact, I don't know why I wasn't invited in the first place.

This is for senior partners only.

Jimmi's not a partner.

Jimmi's here in his capacity as a police surgeon.

-Daniel never even met Catriona.

-Yes, but...

-Look,

I have every right to be here.

I was there the night Catriona was assaulted.

I can't sleep.

I need to know if there's anything I could have done.

Any objections to Mandy joining us?

No, yes, why would I object to some chit of a nurse

sitting in judgment of a doctor

with more than 30 years' experience.

Go the whole hog. Invite Mrs Tembe and the cleaner.

Mandy's right. I think she should have been invited.

Part of the purpose of this audit is to offer emotional support

for any member of staff who has been affected by this case.

Any objections?

-Heston?

-Fine.

Good.

Let's get started.

Thank you.

It was one of those days.

Relentless.

A queue right the door.

At 12:50 a woman who identified herself as Catriona Shailes

presented herself to the counter.

It took a fair bit of effort

to get her to tell me why she was there.

Something about a scrap between her and another woman

outside a nightclub

that was alleged to have happened days before.

She was rambling, not making sense.

I asked her a few, simple questions and she fell to pieces.

Questions like what?

Can she explain what happened?

How long did the alleged attack last?

Could she describe her assailants?

What were her injuries?

Was she really assaulted, or was this just a bit of argy-bargy

at kicking out time?

Hmm.

Finally, I asked her,

"Do you want to make a formal statement or not?"

She thought about it, apologised and left.

And that's all there is to it.

So there was nothing unusual about this case?

Her type come in all the time.

Her type being?

People like what?

People who demand police action about this or that.

But when it comes to making it official, they change their minds.

So, your conclusion about Miss Shailes was...?

She was too flaky to be taken seriously.

And do you think "flaky" is an appropriate term

for a woman with mental health issues?

Page two, there's a summary of her appointments and drugs prescribed.

It's not an atypical list.

Routine health checks, chest infection,

sprained ankle.

You will see in appendix two

that when she arrived,

she was on no long-term medication for mental health issues.

Um, what about the medical notes transferred from her previous GP?

There's no mention of them here.

I didn't think they were relevant for this audit.

Because you didn't read them before you saw Catriona?

-I didn't have time to.

-Because if you had read them,

you would have seen that she's got a long history of mental illness.

You would have known she's been on long-term antidepressants,

-that she has even been hospitalised.

-Yes, but...

Why didn't you consider that the assault

might have affected her mental health?

Yes. OK, thank you, Mandy.

This is supposed to be a non-judgemental review.

Can we leave the questions till later?

Thank you, Howard.

Right, if you turn to the back page, you will see...

Actually, I think Mandy's got a fair point.

Maybe we should hear Heston's answers.

Heston?

She was a stranger.

Walked in off the street.

I saw her for, what, five minutes?

How am I supposed to know that she had mental health issues?

Cos you're meant to be trained to read people,

not to take them at face value,

because you're supposed to be a copper.

Exactly, we are meant to be police officers, not doctors,

not psychologists.

The public expect us to fight crime, keep the streets safe,

not spend half our time picking up the pieces

-because mental health services have been cut to the bone.

-Exactly.

-The job changes all the time.

-Yeah,

and we try our best to change with it,

but we do need adequate and proper training.

OK. Point accepted.

So, are you saying, in your opinion, that Miss Shailes wasn't vulnerable?

That's right.

And yet, you yourself described her as,

"Rambling, not making sense."

And you put this down to her being flaky?

And because of that you turned away the victim of a vicious assault.

A woman with a history of mental instability.

I couldn't know that.

But isn't that what we're here for,

to protect the weak and the vulnerable?

OK, let's move on.

Ten minutes.

That's all we have for a consultation.

We have to talk to the patient,

examine them,

find out what's wrong, prescribe a suitable treatment,

always knowing that we're probably running late.

That is the reality.

We don't have time to read ALL a patient's medical history.

Which is why you missed the full extent

-of Catriona's previous medical history?

-Yes.

But she wasn't a typical patient.

She'd been ill enough to be admitted to a mental health institution.

When she was a teenager.

Shouldn't that have set alarm bells ringing, though?

I prescribed antidepressants and a course of CBT.

-And you think that was enough?

-Yes.

But you know that talking therapies

and antidepressants take time to kick in.

Catriona needed immediate help.

I didn't think there was any urgency.

Shouldn't you have considered her to be a suicide risk?

I didn't think she was.

OK, well, if you'd read all of her notes,

would that have changed your opinion?

Do you read a patient's notes in full

before every consultation?

-Well.

-Tell me, Jim.

-No.

-Why not?

-It's just not practical.

-99.9% of the time we get it right.

But sometimes we just have to put out the fire.

We don't always have the luxury of knowing what caused it.

OK.

OK, so if you had read Catriona's notes in full

and you'd known about her mental health issues,

-would you have acted differently?

-No.

-What?!

-I had to deal with what was in front of me.

I didn't think she was a suicide risk.

Unbelievable.

You spent more time with her than I did.

Did you know she was a danger to herself?

-I think now may be a good time for a break.

-Good idea.

For the tape,

I am showing Sergeant Mitchum a copy of the incident report.

-Is this your handwriting?

-It is.

And yet, no mention of any follow-up action.

No.

As you know, we've also had access to your pocketbook.

Again, no mention of you passing

any information about this case on to any other officer.

Because there was never a case.

She declined to make an official statement.

And that means she can't have been a victim?

I guess not, no.

Perhaps she was too scared to make a complaint.

That can happen.

Maybe she found that the officer she had to deal with

wasn't very sympathetic.

I gave her every opportunity to make it official.

And yet, after she'd gone,

you didn't even take the most basic step -

to see whether her complaint had any grounds.

Like what?

-Couldn't you have gone to the scene of the crime?

-Alleged crime.

Didn't you check the CCTV outside the nightclub

to see if it had recorded any assault on the night in question?

Couldn't you have looked for some independent witnesses

who might've been able to corroborate, or indeed contradict,

Miss Shailes' version of events?

Yes, I could have done both those things.

But you did nothing.

What I did was...

call on 20 years of experience

to calculate what the chances were of this so-called case

ever making it to court.

And your judgment was...?

That it didn't stand a snowball in hell chance of an arrest,

let alone a conviction.

For every victim who sees their case through to court,

we must get ten, a dozen,

who withdraw their statements

after we've already spent hundreds of police man hours on their case.

So you thought Miss Shailes was a time waster?

I don't know about you, but I live in the real world.

You know, the one where police resources

are tighter than they've ever been.

We have to prioritise, we have to focus

on the cases that we think might actually get a conviction.

Now, if you want to hang me out to dry for saving taxpayers' money,

-BE MY GUEST!

-OK, stop the tape.

-What?

-You need a break.

-Do you?

-I'm just fine.

As your federation rep, I say you do.

MACHINE BEEPS

So is there anything that we can do, as a practice, to support you?

Time off? Counselling?

Oh, great. So, if you're one of us, you get offered help

but if you're a patient, pff, forget it.

Thank you, Howard. I'm fine.

Actually, there is one more thing

-that needs to be added for the record.

-What's that?

A statement.

-From whom?

-Catriona's daughter, Beth.

I'm sorry, I don't know the girl, so how is this relevant?

Well, maybe we should find out.

No, I'm sorry.

This was supposed to be a fact-finding process,

-not a forum for airing grievances.

-I agree with Heston.

But surely Beth's voice should be heard?

Or what are we saying now, that a patient's loved ones are irrelevant?

To ensure that lessons are learnt,

this audit needs to be as comprehensive as possible.

What are you doing?

I was just beginning to enjoy myself.

-Giving them a bit of their own medicine.

-You need to dial it down,

the belligerence.

They're questioning my professional standards.

If you really do want them to see you

as a stubborn, antagonistic officer

who just does what he wants,

then you're going about it the right way.

Well, I'm not going to sit there and let them rubbish my entire career.

"I must have been eight or nine

"when I realised she wasn't like other mums.

"Sometimes she couldn't cope with the world

"and she'd walk out of the house - no purse, no keys.

"A few days later, someone would find her wandering around,

"bring her home.

"Or she'd lock herself in the bedroom. Not eat.

"Not say anything until the cloud had passed."

"But those dark moments were few and far between

"because she was supported by therapists, her GPs,

"community nurses.

"She was able to lead a mostly normal life,

"and I had a happy childhood.

"But she wasn't always an easy patient.

"Sometimes she forgot to take her meds.

"Sometimes she thought she knew best.

"Even when she lost faith in herself,

"the NHS never let her down.

"I'm going to miss her so much.

"But I want to say thank you, from me and from my mum,

"for your care, your support,

"for always catching her when she fell.

"Beth."

So, what do you think about gay people?

Lesbians in particular?

I don't see how that's relevant.

Well, it is if it has bearing on this case.

It doesn't matter what I think in private

as long as I leave my personal feelings in the locker room.

When I put on this uniform, I treat everyone exactly the same.

For the record,

Sergeant Mitchum hasn't had one single complaint of homophobia.

Until now.

Homophobic? No way. Ask anyone.

Stay calm.

Stay calm?

I've given half my life to this job and they're coming at me with this!

I have done nothing wrong, and everyone in this room knows that.

If we can get back to the case in hand...

What case?!

Two boozed up women have a scrap outside a nightclub.

There's no weapons involved,

there's no injuries that need hospital treatment,

and your alleged victim wouldn't even make an official complaint.

But this wasn't just your typical Saturday night punch up, was it?

This was a potential hate crime,

which the Force is determined to deal with in a robust manner.

Of course. More political correctness from on high.

So tell me, Sergeant,

how are we supposed to know the extent of such crimes

if victims are put off reporting them by the first copper they meet?

This is a witch hunt...

..and I'm your scapegoat for some new PR policy that you're pushing.

All I'm interested in are the facts.

I did what I could for that woman.

But if she had long-term mental health issues...

..you cannot blame me for her suicide.

But did you help her or did you make things worse?

Right, I think we should wrap this conversation up

with what, if anything, Heston could have done differently.

Well, with hindsight, we can now see that the patient...

Catriona.

..was probably suffering from post-traumatic stress

as a result of the assault.

But as to what we, a GP practice, could have done for her...

Counselling is no quick fix.

Yeah, and the waiting lists are as long as your arm.

-Specialist treatment facilities?

-Beds have been cut.

And what spaces are available

would have to be given to more urgent cases.

What is more urgent than being suicidal?

With all due respect, Mandy, you're her friend,

and even you didn't know how unwell she was.

Oh, right, I see where this is going.

You want all this to be tied up neatly.

One of our patients dies, but none of us is to blame

because we're all too rushed and under resourced.

You know, we do our best,

but it's simply not possible to prevent all suicides.

It's not that easy to predict

who's going to be driven to such extreme circumstances.

But we're ignoring the elephant in the room.

Which is?

Heston, and his lack of understanding

or empathy towards anyone with mental health issues.

That's why he fobbed Catriona off

without getting to know her well enough to see

-that she was in desperate trouble.

-This is just not true.

-You do have some history.

-What history?

Were you forgetting Ruth, Simon?

Heston didn't exactly deal with their issues very well.

How dare you judge me.

How dare you suggest that I know nothing

about mental health issues

after the torment that I've been through.

What torment is that, Heston?

Worried you're going to run out of Lapsang Souchong?

You have no idea!

The paranoia that has stopped me from sleeping,

the memory loss,

the dissociative states.

Yes, I would call that torment!

Heston, I had no idea.

Oh, wait, of course, you only work with me eight hours a day!

Yet I'm supposed to diagnose a patient

with serious mental health problems in just ten minutes.

We need to talk about this.

What's the point?

You clearly don't trust me. I'm not sure I trust myself.

I think that the NHS would be better off without me.

-What do you mean?

-I resign.

Heston! Wait.

Nobody's asking you to resign.

I think Mandy is.

Yes, well, she's upset.

Clearly.

All right, I should have shut her down a long while ago.

You can't close Pandora's box.

Come back inside.

We can talk about this.

I'm going home.

And I'm not coming back.

I think he was right to resign.

Yes, well, you've made your position very clear.

Thank you.

Fine.

Did you know?

Yes, well, he can't keep his cards close to his chest.

The question is,

did Heston's condition

have any bearing on the way that he treated Miss Shailes?

It's a possibility.

Would you have treated her any differently?

Based on what I heard today - no.

I have to agree.

It's every GP's worst nightmare.

But the question is whether Heston is fit to practise medicine or not.

Yes.

Well, we need to find out more about his condition.

-Yeah, and what treatment he's been having.

-If any.

Yes. Well, I think those questions that can wait until tomorrow.

If he comes back.

What, you really think he won't?

Well, after today, could you blame him?

This is from a statement by Nurse Marquez of the Mill Health Centre.

"Catriona went to the police station determined to report the assault.

"When I spoke to her, she told me she hadn't gone through with it,

"that going to the police had actually made things worse."

I'm sorry, but that's hearsay.

Agreed.

But I think we can accept Nurse Marquez's statement

about when she came into the station herself.

"Sergeant Mitchum assured me that he would look into Catriona's case.

"I had no reason to think that he wouldn't do what he said he would."

Tell me, did you deliver on that assurance?

No.

Because?

Because if you're really unhappy...

..you don't send your mate in to complain.

You do it yourself.

It's Nurse Marquez's medical opinion...

..that Catriona was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder,

triggered by the assault

but made worse by the lack of care she received

when she tried to report the crime.

But she's a nurse, not a doctor.

Your point being...?

That she's not qualified to diagnose PTSD.

That's as may be, but it doesn't alter the facts.

Two women came to you about a serious crime. Two gay women.

Both of them felt that you didn't take their complaints seriously.

Now what I need to know is...

..is this just a one-off, a coincidence...

..or is this the tip of the iceberg?

SERGEANT MITCHUM SIGHS

I could lose my job.

I have tried to warn you.

My pension...

What am I going to do?

My advice is to give some ground because if you don't...

..they could throw the book at you.

OK.

I'm sorry that Miss Shailes took her own life...

..but I still believe

it was as a result of pressures in her private life

and not because of my treatment of her.

Do you accept that you didn't treat Miss Shailes' allegations

with sufficient consideration?

Yes.

And do you agree that it was wrong that she left the station

without making a statement?

It was her choice to walk away.

But should you have done more to stop her?

Yes.

But I want it made quite clear

it had nothing to do with Miss Shailes being a lesbian.

Noted.

So what happens now?

I will prepare a file for the Deputy Chief Constable,

who will then pass it on to the IPCC.

They will be responsible for the final decision on what,

if any action will be taken against you.

But you will be making recommendations?

-Yes.

-And what are you going to tell them?

You will be informed of any decision in due course.

You can't just leave me in limbo.

How's he to be expected to concentrate on work

with this hanging over him?

Well, that shouldn't be an issue.

Why not?

Because I will be recommending that

while this investigation is ongoing...

..you should be suspended.

Rob,

I thought you were supposed to help.

-I did.

-Suspension?

If that's all they give you, then you've got off lightly.

Because a vulnerable woman came to you for help,

you turned your back on her, and now she's dead.

Now you might be able to live with that on your conscience...

..I don't think I could.

Heston, it's Howard...

again.

Erm, just wanted to let you know

that we're...we're all looking forward to you

returning back to work tomorrow, and, erm...

..in the meantime, well, you've got my numbers.

Bye.

I can pass by on my way home from work, check he's all right.

I'm not sure it's a good idea.

Yeah, he's a man who likes his own space.

Once he's slept on it, he'll realise he's over reacted.

Well, I hope so.

It's not a question of have we let him down,

the truth is, can we afford to lose someone as good as Heston?

Jimmi, the perfect man to settle this wager.

Dr Donoghue rather predictably has gone for Star Trek.

I'll let her have the original series and all the spin offs.

I myself, being right, am going to go with Battlestar Galactica.

So come on, what is the greatest science fiction show off all times?

Come on, dude. There's lamb souvlaki riding on this.

What's happened?

-Heston's offered his resignation.

-What?!

-Why?

Ah, look, it's not official yet,

-so don't go saying anything to anyone, OK?

-No.

Last thing we need is Karen broadcasting it to the world,

and God knows what will happen when Mrs Tembe finds out.

Eek.

So as we've received no official adjudication,

-you want to raise the stakes? Double or quits?

-I'm game.

OK. The most romantic screen couple.

Ah!

Bogart, and not Bacall, Hepburn in The African Queen.

All that repressed smouldering under the sun.

Hmm, not bad.

I myself, am going to go for Barbara Windsor and Sidney James

in Carry On Henry.

"You're only after one thing."

"Why, what's the matter with the other one?"

HE IMITATES LAUGH EXAGGERATINGLY

Are you OK?

-That was a... That was a very, very good impression.

-Ah...

HE LAUGHS

If you must to blame someone,

then lay it at the right door...

like the people who attacked her in the first place.

We're not talking about dropping her off in the woods

to fend for herself, Chrissie, but we can't cope.

She needs to move out.

I've made big plans.

I'm off to India.

Good discussion.

-Karen.

-I'm just trying to organise a meeting.

You're not fooling anyone.