Christie's Hospital - Trustees should resign

Paul Rowen (Rochdale, Liberal Democrat) Hansard PMQ's

The Christie hospital, which is a world leader in the treatment of cancer, has recently lost £6.5 million owing to the Icelandic banking crisis—money that was earmarked for new radiography centres in Oldham and Salford. Given the Government's support for financial institutions, what is the Prime Minister doing to help the Christie to recover that money? (ED. Christies is part of the NHS Christies is a charitable trust website)

Prime Mnister (currently Gordon Brown MP Kirkcaldy) I have met nurses from the Christie hospital, who do a wonderful job in treating people with cancer. The Christie hospital is a world-class hospital and I praise it for what it does. I have said that I will meet its officials to look at the issues that they raise. Essentially, the issue relates to an Icelandic bank that was regulated not in Britain, but outside. For all banks that are regulated in Britain, we have guaranteed the deposits of savers. We will see what we can do, but I have to tell the hon. Gentleman that the central issue is that the Christie hospital is not a charity with funds in a bank that is regulated in Britain. However, we will look at what we can do, and I once again praise the Christie hospital for what it achieves.

It may seem hard , but the Government should not bail out Christies. Of course they underake wondeful work and are rapacious collectors for their charity, repeatedly caling subscribers every month for months and years after they have been asked to stop. Neither should they have bailed out the banks, that has no bearing on the Christie case.

The trustees must look after the money they hold in trust , prudently and safely.

That they entrust their funds to a foreign bank, uninsured in any way, in such quantity, is their failure. No one else is responsible.

Anxious to maximise returns they became reckless and lost everyone's money.

The Trustees should resign - there will be no problem replacing them.

Pour encourage les autres.

PS - Charitable Fuds Committee - Role pdf Chairman is Lord Bradley

The role of the committee is to oversee the management of the affairs of the
Christie Hospital Charitable Fund. This is a delegated duty carried out on
behalf of the Christie Hospital NHS Foundation Trust which is the sole
corporate trustee of the charity. The role is to ensure that the charity acts
within the terms of its declaration of trust and appropriate legislation and to
provide information to the audit committee to enable it to provide assurance
to the board that the charity is properly governed and well managed across
the full range of activities.

See details of Non Exec directors here