King Edward VII hospital on Saturday said it stood by Jacintha Saldanha’s handling of the hoax call though she did not strictly follow the procedure for dealing with calls for “high profile” patients.
“Part of our procedure is to take the name and number of the individual and call them back. This is to verify that the call is genuine. We also empower our staff to use their judgment. On this particular occasion, Jacintha believed that the call was genuine, and she felt it appropriate to put the call through. We stand by her judgment,” said John Lofthouse, chief executive of King Edward VII hospital, in a letter to Labour MP Keith Vaz, who is acting as spokesman for the Saldanha family.
Ms. Saldanha answered the hoax call that led to medical details of the Duchess of Cambridge being disclosed to two Australian DJs.
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Denying that the hospital put any pressure on her, Mr. Lofthouse said Ms. Saldanha was in fact offered time off after the incident but she said she would prefer to continue working. “Neither ourselves, her friends or family noticed anything to give cause for concern,” he said.