COLLEAGUES and patients of a prominent Warrington doctor accused of bullying medical centre staff have jumped to his defence.

The Warrington Guardian last week revealed how Warrington Primary Care Trust had removed all clinical staff from Birchwood Medical centre.

Brian Morris, branch secretary of union Unison, claimed staff were removed because of a number of serious complaints made against Dr Francis Patiniott MBE.

Since the article was published, the Guardian has been swamped with calls,

letters and emails from former and current colleagues of Dr Patiniott and patients.

One colleague, who did not wish to be named, who was withdrawn from the clinic last week said: "Staff at the centre were appalled to discover that they were to be removed. We were not consulted, were given no more than 48 hours' notice of our removal, and when one of my colleagues asked what if we wanted to stay at Birchwood, we were told in no uncertain terms that this was not an option and that it was mandatory for everyone to leave.

"I strongly refute any of the allegations concerning the bullying of staff by Dr Patiniott. He and his partners and the staff strive to provide a high quality, seamless delivery of care to their patients."

Patient Carol Gane, of McCarthy Close, Culcheth, describes Dr Patiniott as 'gold dust', saying: "He is in such demand that patients have to book appointments well in advance. He is an excellent doctor who gets to the bottom of things with minimal fuss.

"He always puts himself out for his patients and goes above and beyond the call of duty. He goes out of his way and is more like a family friend than a GP."

Janet Walsh, whose dying husband was under the care of Dr Patiniott, claims that her husband made her vow to defend the doctor on his deathbed.

She said: "Dr Patiniott was wonderful with my husband when he was diagnosed with cancer and subsequently died. My husband made it clear that he didn't want any morphine and Dr Patiniott respected that. He told us we should call him any time day or night and he would be straight there if we needed him. I know that a couple of PCT staff members from outside Birchwood attempted to pressurise Dr Patiniott into prescribing morphine but he refused to.

"To the best of my knowledge one of the same PCT staff members made a complaint about Dr Patiniott saying he had been bullying me. I was furious

because Dr Patiniott was absolutely wonderful. I wrote to the chief executive of the PCT, Jonathan Smith, in disgust but my letter was never even acknowledged."

Another patient, Ron Gemmell, said: "Dr Patiniott has worked for years to develop the medical centre into the place of excellence it is now. The atmosphere there is always friendly and I find it difficult to imagine that bullying by anybody takes place there - everyone seems to get on very well."

Arthur Barlow, aged 72, of Curlew Grove, Birchwood, has been a patient at the centre for most of his life. He said: "I have to see the physiotherapist because I have bad arthritis. Now I will have to travel to Culcheth for treatment. Whatever is going on the PCT should not allow things like this to affect the patient. It's very unprofessional."

Brian Morris, branch secretary of Unison, said: "Over the past 10 years there have been four allegations with regard to bullying, harassment, verbal abuse and aggression and there have been three inquiries. On the first two occasions district nurses were withdrawn from the medical centre in the interests of staff safety. On the last occasion Dr Patiniott was made to apologise by the PCT.

"Why would one community trust remove nurses and then five or six years down the line a new community trust move out everyone from the centre if there wasn't a problem?

"It should be noted that the PCT is not denying these allegations."

Warrington Primary Care Trust chief executive Jonathan Smith said: "We have agreed with the practice that neither of us can be drawn into commenting on the details of why the PCT took the decision to relocate its staff. The staffing difficulties experienced by the PCT are confidential. The decision to relocate staff was not taken lightly.

"Any allegations about the circumstances are not made on behalf of the PCT."

Kath Longden, practice manager at Birchwood Medical Centre, said: "The practice is not aware of any ongoing investigation and neither, as far as we

are aware, is any investigation planned.

"All members of the practice continue to have a good working relationship with local community staff."