Hospital chief resigns after phone tapping

A consultant in an NHS trust hospital has taken early retirement after discovering that the trust's chief executive tapped his telephone. Dr John Spencer, consultant radiologist at Luton and Dunstable Hospital NHS Trust, has signed an agreement not to speak publicly about the circumstances surrounding his retirement. The chief executive, Mrs Averil Dongworth, eventually resigned after consultants at the hospital passed a motion of no confidence in her. The vote was 46 for and one against. Luton police have passed a file on the tapping to the Crown Prosecution Service. They are still waiting to hear the service's opinion on whether the Interception Communications Act 1985 was contravened in this case. If the police want to tap someone's phone, they have to seek the permission of the Home Secretary. According to a detailed article in the Guardian on 1 April, Dr Spencer discovered an …